Black orchid
by ncisgirl101
Summary: The team is called to solve a series of murders each time leaving a series of 'clues' behind. As the clues get closer and closer to a member of the NCIS team, two agents are brought closer together... Tiva! the story is WAY better than this summary. enjoy
1. Lisa Vidad

I'm back

I'm back! I don't own NCIS though I suppose I own the idea for this – however, if the writers of NCIS want it, they are most welcome to it.

_NCIS rules all. _

_Xox Mel_

_ENJOY!! _

XXX

**Chapter one: Lisa Vidad  
**  
"Grab your gear" came the familiar voice of Leroy Jethro Gibbs as he marched into the bullpen, dressed in what could only be described as his favourite outfit. Though Gibbs never showed any preference to what he wore, this was the one he wore most often, - light brown suit with a black shirt and a white T-shirt underneath, just visible along the neck line.

Tony jumped up and all but exploded in excitement, this was his favourite part.  
"Where are we going?" he asked straining to hide his enthusiasm.

"To Quantico. A woman's been dumped on the Naval base there."

"I'll call Ducky." Ziva piped up, the first thing she'd said all morning.

"No McGee, you call Ducky, Ziva, DiNozzo; you go ahead and meet us there."

Ziva contemplated arguing but decided she may as well live with it. Today, well all week really, Ziva was in a particularly bad mood with one Anthony DiNozzo. The week prior, Tony and herself had -to put it lightly- had an argument.

It was stupid, really; He had said something to her that had been misconstrued, she was talking about her family to him, opening up to him, and he had said that he would never marry a Jew -somehow completely forgetting that Ziva was Jewish.  
Ziva had taken that badly as she - at that point - had been incredibly close to telling him how she really thought of him so she yelled at him and called him a racist, this caught him off guard and they had been fighting ever since.

Tony felt bad, he knew that nothing could make it better, even if he did apologise, he knew she would never forgive him. He had tried on numerous occasions but to no prevail - she pretty much ignored him, she would act in front of Gibbs but in a way they both knew he wasn't fooled.

XXX

Tony and Ziva were first on the scene, they flashed their badges to the navy personal and headed toward the naked victim. She was young, in her twenties, with black, curly hair that looked familiar. According to her ID that was probably fake as it was the only thing left next to her, her name was Lisa Vidad.

After inspection from Ducky, Palmer and Gibbs, the body of 'Lisa Vidad' was driven back to NCIS.

XXX

"Hey Abs." Gibbs walked into the lab carrying a caff-POW in one hand and a bag of evidence in the other.

"My knight in shining armour!" Abby said in her chirpy voice as she reached for the drink and took a sip "Well my boss in silver hair." she corrected with a smile.

Gibbs let a small laugh pass through his nose as he rolled his eyes and passed Abby the bag of evidence.

"What do you need done?" she asked, already inspecting the clear bag.

"First I need you to ID our Jane Doe. There is something hinky about this name tag thing."

Abby smiled, she had worked with Gibbs long enough to understand him, he worked on his gut, and if it said something was hinky, then something was hinky. She had had the same feeling about the nametag herself. This person was either very, very smart or very, very dumb.

"And test that evidence." he said, already on his way back to the bullpen

"Yes sir!" She called after him, snapping into a military salute.

XXX

"Ziva... Ziva." Tony was trying to snap up Ziva's attention so he could apologise to her but she was still ignoring him.

"McGee." he decided to try a new approach. "Can you tell Ziva I'm sorry."

McGee shot Tony a confused look, he had never expected Tony of all people to apologise first, and so soon, it had only been a week.

"Sure" he finally answered and turned to Ziva and exhaled, he felt stupid, Tony could just tell her himself.

"Ziva, Tony says he's really sorry."

Ziva looked at McGee and then took a swift glance at Tony and then back to McGee.  
"Tell Tony he doesn't look that sorry."

McGee turned to Tony to pass on the message but was cut off by him, already responding to Ziva's statement.

"Tell Ziva I _am_ sorry." he shot her a glance that was halfway apologetic, halfway angry,

"Tell Tony that I don't care. I try to help you but you never want to talk to Me." she quickly responded, her gaze not leaving Tony's eyes. They were locked in a staring competition, neither looking as though it was going to stop at any stage.

"Tell Ziva that I want to talk now."

"What so you want to talk now so I should just talk?" The conversation was getting confusing and more heated by the minute.

Tony sighed. He had nothing to say to that, he knew he had been a real jerk the past few weeks, Ziva only wanted to help him and he shot her down, then, when she opened up about her father it was his turn to help her and he failed.

"I'm sorry, Ziva. I don't know why this means so much to you."

She thought about that for a minute then sighed. He was right. Why did this mean so much to her? Why would him saying he would never marry a Jew get her so worked up?

"Neither do I." She broke away from Tony's gaze and continued writing. This was not like her to run away - or in this case, ignore - her problems. A few years ago she would have just shot him but NCIS had brought on something she never thought she could have - Emotion. She could feel happiness, anger, compassion, jealousy, love. Everything she had heard about but never thought she would be a part of.

Tony moaned quietly and turned to his computer, there was one more option.  
He opened up a new email page and typed in Ziva's email address. Tony and Ziva often emailed each other from across the bullpen; it was something that Ziva had started while reading McGee's first book - Deep Six. She would often send him paragraphs of Lisa's lust for Tommy or of Tommy's womanising antics. Eventually it became a way of teasing each other while Gibbs was unaware and sometimes they would discuss their cases. And even when Tony was having trouble with Jeanne, Ziva's emails became a way of communicating and comforting him.

'_Ziva,_' it began '_I'm sorry for what I said, I really am, I wasn't thinking. Somehow-- I have no idea how-- I forgot that you were Jewish and you don't count in that rule…_' at that moment Tony came to a sudden realisation, was she just worried that he might not want to marry her? Was this about something different then what he initially thought? Did Ziva _like _him? He backspaced the last part and hit the send button before he could make things get any worse.

Ziva opened her email and read through the small apology, her heart pounding against her chest as he admitted he forgot she was Jewish, however the feeling was quickly taken over by heavy scepticism.

"You forgot?" she called across to his desk.

"I have no idea how. But Yeah, I did."

At that moment Gibbs walked into the bullpen and -sensing what he had walked into- he walked straight past Tony without slapping him on the back of the head for emailing during investigation time.

"What have we got so far?" he called to his team, though his eyes were locked on Ziva, her eyes a million miles away with a slight hint of confusion behind her features.  
McGee was first to pipe up.

"Okay, the girl's real name is Anna Richards, she lives in New York but was in DC for a few months visiting her family, here is the address she was staying with her Aunt and Uncle. A Mr and Mrs Knight." McGee passed Gibbs a piece of paper. And glanced at Tony, he was watching Ziva, her face slowly coming back to reality.

"Tony, go talk to her family, they may already know, they may not. Take David." Gibbs knew in the back of his mind that maybe letting them go together was a bad idea but if there was the slightest chance they could work out whatever drama had been going on during the 45-minute drive then it was worth it.

"Sure boss" Tony said, jumping up and grabbing his coat. "Ziva" he called, pulling her back into reality.

"Yep. Coming" she jumped up quickly and ran to catch up with her partner, every trace of the confusion she felt gone.

XXX

"I'm sorry, Tony," Ziva piped up after about 15 minutes of silence. "I took what you said a little too personally and I know it's a sign of weakness but I'm sorry."

Tony was slightly shocked, there was no way he was expecting Ziva to apologise to him, there was no reason for it, he was the one who had said the wrong thing, not her.

"Ziva. For one thing, I'm not Gibbs and for another; Please don't apologise, you've done absolutely nothing wrong."

For the first time in over a week, Ziva smiled. Tony joined in, he was happy he had his partner back, it was like a part of him was missing but he only noticed it was missing when he got it back.

"So" Tony began after a few more minutes of silence. "Did you miss me?" he smiled  
Ziva rolled her eyes in disbelief, how could he already be joking?  
"Not really" she smiled.

"Yeah well you still checked me out the other day when Gibbs made us have that work out session."

"Oh yeah" she returned to her usual teasing self. "The way you rolled around the floor in pain was a real turn - on."

Though it was only gone for a week, he hadn't realised how much he'd missed her sarcasm.

The pair talked for the next twenty minutes until they reached their destination, Tony pulled the hand break and sighed.

"Here we go." He muttered underneath his breath.  
Ziva sighed as well, knowing what he was referring to, what if the family didn't know their niece was dead?

Ziva was first out of the car and around the opposite side before Tony had gotten out.  
They both walked the pathway together, taking careful steps to postpone this painful part for at least a few seconds more.

Ziva had more experience in this area and she was fairly desensitised to death but she never enjoyed telling kind people they had lost something precious. Again. NCIS had brought on compassion, everyday she was loosing her old murderous self and gaining a new, more human persona.

Tony sighed and knocked on the front door. "Here we go," he repeated, this time to both of them.

XXX

"That wasn't as bad as I was expecting." Tony sounded surprised as he got into the driver's seat.

"How bad were you expecting?" She asked, also surprised but for a totally different reason.

"Well," he began "I've done a few of these and they are never pretty but this one was not as bad. They seemed to take it alright."

Ziva shivered, the cold of the car hit her harder than usual after the warmth of the Richard's house.

"Are you alright?" Tony asked, already removing his jacket to force upon his partner.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just didn't bring a jacket."

Before she could even finish her sentence, his jacket was being wrapped around her shoulders, she tried to rip it off but found that it was being held on, she turned to face him and make a comment about killing him if he didn't take his jacket back but all of a sudden she found herself close enough to Tony's face that she could smell his breath. It was cool, kind of a minty tint to it.

Her head was swimming; he was so close. Close enough to touch. Close enough to taste.

"Please take the jacket." Tony pleaded, suddenly aware of the awkward closeness he had brought on. Before either could think or pull away, Tony was moving his face forward, enclosing the inches between them.

**XXX  
**_Thankyou for reading… I haven't written anything in ages so it would be great to know what you all think – I'll update soon! Meanwhile, there's a little blue button that would just LOVE to be pressed: D:D!! _

_Xox Mel_


	2. Deadly clues

Chapter two: Deadly clues

**Chapter two: Deadly clues**

**XXX  
**

Hey, I'm back again! :P:P hehe I hope you all loved the annoying little cliff-hanger I threw in their :D… Thankyou all so much for all of your reviews, I was expecting like 5 and I logged on and had 18! Thankyou all so much, I own every one of you a hug and a candy bar… thankyou! And please enjoy the next chapter!

XXX

"Please take the jacket." Tony pleaded, suddenly aware of the awkward closeness he had brought on. Before either could think or pull away, Tony was moving his face forward, enclosing the inches between them.

XXX

_  
_Ziva's heartbeat sped up as Tony's lips came closer and closer to hers. It seemed to be going in slow motion but still - in a way - too fast to catch up with.

Their lips were millimetres apart, so close Tony could feel her hot breath hit his chin and slither down his neck, sending his heartbeat into a wild frenzy.

"Gibbs, mobile." came the voice from Tony's phone, the caller ID shouted out at him.  
Tony jumped, for the first time realising what was going on. He moved towards his phone, both agents resuming the usual driving stance.

"Yeah boss" He answered

"DiNozzo, we got another body, head down to Quantico, Ducky and Palmer should be there by the time you arrive, you and David start Bagging and Tagging and we'll meet you there."

"What have we got?"

"Same as last time." Gibbs answered quickly before he hung up the phone in Tony's ear.

"Alright," Tony turned toward Ziva and smiled "I know I'm going to regret this, but you drive."

"Quantico Naval Base. Got it"

XXX

Gibbs was first on the scene, he moved toward the victim's body cautiously, taking in every detail that surrounded the crime scene. Something shiny and plastic reflecting off his flashlight caught his attention; he walked over to it and found it was a nametag. The flashlight scrolled across it word by word 'L.I.S.A V.I.D.A.D'

Gibbs sighed at reading this and moved closer to observe the victim. Her build and looks were the same as the fist woman. She was slim, slightly tan with black, curly hair that faded into the night.

The flashlight scrolled across the top half of the body. The difference was she was wearing a top this time; it was a black polar fleece, the zip of it covered in dark blood.  
Gibbs squinted like he was trying to read something that was far away. He could have sworn the jacket looked familiar.

"Hey Duck!" Gibbs called into the lights where all the numerous Navy corps' trucks were parked, along with the NCIS wagon.

Ducky heard Gibbs' calls and walked over to him, practically marching as palmer behind him dragged the equipment needed to investigate the victim.

"Jethro, you really should learn to be more patient." Ducky called to Gibbs as he closed the gap between them. "What have we got here, my poor dear." he asked, talking to Gibbs and the victim at the same time.

"We got another 'Lisa'. Can you flip over the body for me, I've seen this jacket before."

"Of course." Ducky smiled as he leant down to roll the body. "Since I can't see a gunshot wound on this side, one must try both sides. I remember years ago an old friend of mine forgot to flip the body and spent hours having to re-do the autopsy, looking for fingerprints over the back of the cadaver."

"Yeah, Duck hurry it up, will ya? I'm 2 people short" Gibbs said, leaning to the side hoping to get a glance at the back of the jacket as quickly as possible to settle his stomach.

Ducky rolled the body over to reveal the letters NCIS. Gibbs sighed.  
"Oh my" Ducky muttered. "Do you suppose it some kind of warning?" he asked, studying Gibbs' face.

"I don't know Duck, let's just get her back"

XXX

Tony and Ziva sat in the bullpen looking for matches of names, faces and leads to Lisa Vidad and Anna Richards. Occasionally either of them would allow looks to the other when they were sure they were too encased in their work or phone conversations to realise.

Just as Ziva glanced up to look at Tony, she was interrupted by the quiet 'bing' of her email.

_'Hey Ziva I've been thinking about last night and I'm sorry. Partners again?  
-Tony'_

  
Ziva smiled at this thought, it had been a very, very long time since it had felt like she'd had a partner. There had been a lot of different things going on even before their fight and they hadn't had a chance to be partners again.

_'Partners'_

She wrote back.

Tony smiled at reading this and mouthed 'Thankyou.'

"Hey Boss, I think I got a name!" Tony called just as Gibbs marched into the bullpen, about to ask that very question.

The team moved over to the big plasmas in the middle of the bullpen as Tony switched it on.

"Her name is Alison Smith, 27 years old, lives in DC."

"Okay." Gibbs was already walking, "McGee with me; Tony, Ziva, I want you to find out more. Investigate every tiny detail of this 'Lisa Vidad' where she lives, what she does, who she knows. I don't care how you get it, you can hack, you can break and enter, just find out."

Tony and Ziva stared at their boss until the elevator door closed on his stern face. Then turned to each other.

"You got anything?" Tony asked with a hint of desperation in his eyes.

"Nope."

XXX

Tony let out a huge yawn and stood up to stretch out his arms in front of him. He still had no information on this Lisa Vidad and he was beginning to doubt her existence.

"Have you found out anything yet?" Tony asked for the third time that afternoon.  
Ziva looked up and met his hopeful gaze.

"Nothing" she responded and sighed at the same time as Tony.  
Just then, the phone on Gibbs' desk rang.

"Should we answer it?" Tony wondered aloud before realising Ziva was halfway to it already.

"Agent Gibbs' desk." she answered and Tony smiled at the forced politeness of her tone.

Ziva's face went still as a stone, her expression indifferent but with a hint of something behind it.  
Frustration, maybe? Or fear?

"We'll be there in 15 minutes." she hung up and turned to Tony; "they found another body." Ziva explained, already putting on her NCIS jacket and cap and attaching all her weapons to all the separate places they belonged.

"I'll call Gibbs, you go get Ducky and meet me in the car in 5 minutes." Tony instructed.

Without another word, she was out of sight and in the elevator, the expression in her eyes becoming more prominent. Like she knew something that no one else knew.

XXX

"Body number three." Said Tony before snapping another picture of the dead body from 10 feet. "Kind of weird. This is exactly the plot of this German movie I saw once. It was about this serial killer who was getting back to work, sorry Boss"

Gibbs didn't acknowledge his younger agent; he just walked up to the body. Taking measurements. There was no one in the world that hated serial killings more than Gibbs. Especially young women, only in their twenties.

This girl, again, was the same. Black hair, slim. Even the same eye colour as the last and, just like every other time there was a nametag within a 20-foot radius of the body marked 'Lisa Vidad.'

"Alright" Gibbs sighed, sensing a long week and a lot of murdered girls at this rate. "Get her back."

Ducky nodded and moved toward the body, shaking his head in disapproval of whoever this murderous wretch was and how he could murder three perfectly innocent girls on the sole basis that they all had the same appearance.

XXX

"What have we got here Duck?" Gibbs asked, marching into autopsy, followed by McGee, Tony and Ziva in single file.

"Well the same as the others, gun shot to the back, death was instantaneous." Ducky was stitching her back up as he spoke.

Although Gibbs' gut knew there was more he also knew he had to push to get that extra information,

"Why did you call us down here, Duck?" he asked impatiently.

"Well, I thought you should see this." Ducky moved across the room, turning on the lights to the different - and occupied - metal tables "As you can see, these girls are similar enough to be sisters. Each time the murderer adds another piece of clothing. As though he - or she - is trying to give us a clue.

The first simply came naked; the clue was the black hair and the appearance. The second time, he added a navy blue NCIS jacket, as well as the looks. And the Third…" He shot a meaningful glance at Gibbs, figuring he already knew where this was leading. Ziva stiffened.

"Third he added this." Ducky moved to the bench that held the third murdered woman. He picked up a gold necklace with a pair of tweezers for everyone to inspect.  
Hanging off the end of the gold chain was a gold Star of David.

At exactly the same moment all 4 men turned around to look at Ziva, the fright behind each of their faces barely masked.


	3. Lock down

Chapter three: Lock down

_**Hello everyone! Thankyou all for the WONDERFUL comments, I still owe you that hug and cookie :P:P hehe for those of you who don't know what happens end of season five, you won't know what I'm talking about but (slight spoilers) please don't let it be Tony or Ziva!\**_

_**Xox Mel**_

**XXX**

**Chapter three: Lock down.  
**  
Ziva sat in the bullpen. She felt Tony's eyes boring into her; she felt more like a prisoner then ever. After Gibbs' fears had been confirmed and they knew for sure that this man was after her Gibbs had ordered Tony to keep an eye on her, to not let her leave the room without supervision.

Finally, she stood up.  
"Where are you going?" Tony asked a little too quickly, failing to try and keep a cool, indifferent tone.

Ziva sighed, "I'm going to the toilet. Would you like to watch?" she didn't even attempt to hide the bitterness behind her sarcasm.

Tony looked down at his desk and then hopped up to walk toward her desk "No, but I'll take you there." he smiled his most dashing smile, clearly trying to make a joke of the situation.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. This was too much to bear. She needed to get away from the feeling of her co-worker's eyes boring into her head -making sure she was still there - and the secretive glances they shot each other when they thought she wasn't paying attention and how they got up to 'go to the toilet' when really they were going to discuss leads behind her back.

"Tony." she sighed again, this time trying to keep herself from murdering a co-worker "I've had people after me before. Back in Mossad we had 3 other intelligence agencies working against us at the same time."

"Well Ziva, you're not exactly at Mossad right now" He said back at her lightly, trying to make it sound as though it was just a conversational point - not so much as a statement of fact.

Ziva rolled her eyes and balled her fists, marching into the lady's toilets before she did something she may grow to regret.

Tony knew that this was annoying for Ziva, in fact, out of every other person working at NCIS; she would take this the worst. Ziva loved to fight, to be in the action, to show everyone just how strong she was - but being held still, being ordered to let other people defend her instead of being out there with them was Ziva's definition of hell. He knew it must be killing her but he was just following orders -and to an extent, Ziva knew that too.

XXX

"This is killing me!" Ziva grumbled, exasperated with the whole situation, she lay her head down of the desk, her hands splayed out in front of her.

Tony laughed lightly to himself, clearly finding the whole situation amusing. Ziva shot him a deadly glance and he redrew his smile.

"What is so funny?" somehow, she managed to make the small amount of words sound like a threat to kill him.

"Nothing"

"Look Ziva I'm sorry about this but we're not enjoying it either." McGee piped up for the first time since the pair had returned from the ladies room. Tony shot him an exasperated look saying both 'are you for real?' and 'I'm sure that wasn't the right thing to say.'  
Then he snorted trying to make a joke at the whole thing, to bring a little essence of DiNozzo to the atmosphere.

"Yeah, right, McGeek. You have plenty of things you can do. You can write a new book in the time we have here. If you're a little stuck I can just walk over here and make conversation to give you some ideas," Tony smiled, flashing his perfect teeth around the bullpen before walking over Ziva's desk and sitting on the end of it, still smiling as she grimaced at him. "Isn't that right, Lisa?"

His smile abruptly turned into a hard mask of serious concentration.  
"Oh my God." he spoke with no volume before moving over to his computer, turning on the big communal plasma on his way there.

"What is it?" McGee asked, almost completely certain that his face was in exactly the same state of confusion as Ziva's.

Tony just typed quickly, the letters appearing on the screen as he did so.  
"Lisa." he began "Lisa is Ziva. The character from your book."

Ziva's eyes tightened at this realisation.

"It makes sense." McGee agreed "But what does Vidad mean?"

"Vidad is David jumbled up." she stated matter-of-factly, completely detaching any emotion from the current situation, - completely professional - as though it was any other case. Really, she was just happy she was useful again.

"Oh God" Tony repeated, just as quietly, and just as scared as the first time. He pulled out his phone and quickly explained the situation to Gibbs.

"Alright." Said Gibbs through the phone. "Tony, you take Ziva somewhere to get some rest, don't leave the building and do not leave her side. Take a computer with you wherever you end up, I want you running every lead, and every angle this thing can go in. If Ziva isn't sleeping, she is answering every question you have and writing down every name of every person she has ever met. You find me an answer." He hung up the phone in Tony's ear and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

XXX

Tony plugged his laptop into the PowerPoint outlet on the skirt board of the gym.  
"Of all the places." he muttered to himself.

"What's the matter DiNozzo? Are you uncomfortable?" she asked in a not so caring way, Jumping forward to punch the bag in front of her. Along with many other violent things, punching was one of the activities that calmed her down.

"I'm fine" Tony lied. Through all that was going on and beyond the fact that someone was trying to take away one of the reasons that he got up each morning, A large part of Tony's mind couldn't stop wanting Ziva. She looked so good in her sweats, even through the baggy grey NCIS top, he knew exactly which muscles would tighten and loosen in her stomach each time her fist came into contact with the bag. He could imagine the way the sweat was coming off her hard stomach in little beads. So fragile, yet so indestructible; so beautiful, yet still so deadly; she was too much to bear, there was no way he could hold himself all night, at this rate he would be gone with in the hour.

"Tony stop checking out my butt when you think I'm not looking." Ziva called to him without looking up to even prove her theory correct.

Tony looked down quickly and pretended to read something on the screen in front of him that was still warming up.

Not looking at her helped, now he could maybe last the whole night as long as he didn't look at her or think about her - which was hard considering that she was the main focus of the case.

He leaned over and looked at Ziva's long list of possible suspects and people who had tried to kill her in the past and sighed. This was going to take all night.

XXX

Finally Tony had finished. He glanced at his watch and his eyes widened when he saw it was 2 in the morning, he had begun his project at around 3 in the afternoon. He sent his long essay to Abby, Gibbs and McGee and shut his computer.

"Finished?" Ziva asked him, walking forward a few paces before falling to the floor a few meters from her partner.

"Thank god" Tony called out, still as enthusiastic about finishing as he was every other time.

"Who's the main lead?" she asked casually.

He looked suspicious for a moment. "I don't think I can…" he trailed off, leaving the obvious unsaid.

"Tony." she sighed, her gaze not leaving his "I work here too. I have a right to know what's going on."

He sighed and looked down, studying the front of his laptop then allowing his eyes to return slowly -and cautiously - to Ziva's face. They trailed over her chin and stopped at her perfectly shaped lips, - his eyes tracing around the outline of them - they then continued on over her nose and met her eyes, her eyelashes curved in exactly the right place, thick and black yet so fine and intricate. He sighed in defeat.

"Alright, but wait, I want Gibbs to go over everything first. I don't want to look into the wrong thing."

"You are finished, though, right?" she asked, internally kicking her for what she was about to do.

"Yeah" he answered, the proud apparent in his tone. "But I've never really finished until I've killed this person that's after you. If you can call him a person. How does man-demon sound to yo--" Tony was cut off by Ziva's lips against his, pressing hard and urgent with - what he thought to be passion - but really with the distaste that Ziva felt for herself. She loved Tony but she had to do this.

She knew who this person was from the start, it was overly theatrical - silly really - but she had to do this herself, and the only way to get out of the building was to do this to Tony and as much as she hated herself for it, it had to be done before another innocent girl was murdered.

She pushed herself into Tony, deepening the kiss and forcing their bodies into an unbreakable lock, silently wishing that the pair could stay that way for the rest of eternity.

XXX

**What is Ziva doing? **

**Why does she feel bad? **

**Why are they kissing? **

**Did I miss something?**

**Why is this bad?**

**Why am I asking so many questions when I could be writing a new chapter?**

**Hehe thankyou for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it :P**

**Xox Mel**


	4. Last goodbyes

Hey everyone

_**Hey everyone! Thankyou so much for all the great reviews! I'm really sorry that this chapter is so short but the next one is about 2,000 words so that will hopefully make up for it! :P:P Thankyou all so much for reading and I hope you enjoy… This chapter has a light sex scene… well more of a pre-sex scene and I didn't know how to rate that so here's a small warning: things get kinda heated but not too heated. I can't write sex scenes to save myself (not that it would ever save me)..I can only allude to them**_

_**Without further stalling for time, here is:**_

**Chapter four: Last goodbyes.**

XXX**  
**  
The kiss continued eagerly on both parts. It was amazing, even more amazing then either of them had thought it could be. They had kissed before but the memory of that night had not done justice to the real thing.

Tony's hands moved to the small of Ziva's back, pulling her in closer to him, his breathing getting heavier by the minute. Ziva moved her hands to the front of his shirt, shaking slightly as she undid each of the buttons on his shirt one by one. Once that was off, her hands touched his chest, moving slowly over the contours of his body.

Ziva pushed the feeling of distaste for herself into the back of her mind and focused on the precious moment that the two had together. Ziva had never wanted anything as badly as she had wanted this moment. For years she had dreamed about it and imagined what it would be like but nothing - not the dreams or the fantasies - compared to the reality.

His hands slipped off the small of her back and to the front of her shirt, he pulled off her sweat top and Singlet and internally thanked himself for locking the doors to stop her slipping out.

Ziva leant over him until his head was against the gym mat, not breaking the kiss once as she loosened his buckle and allowed him to remove his pants.  
His lips did not leave her skin, even when she broke off for air his lips moved down her neck and traced her collarbone, His hands moving around her back, undoing the clips on her bra.

Tony threw the bra to the other side of the room and flipped over so he was on top, giving himself enough of a gap to slide her pants down her legs and throw them away. He admired her body, it was a thousand times more beautiful then he had expected, it was so soft and smooth, like it was sewn together by a million tiny strands of silk.  
Ziva laughed to herself, breaking the kiss.

"What's so funny?" Tony asked, panting.

"You shaved" She laughed again, her giggles more hysteric then amused from gasping in air.

He smiled his famous quirky smile, tilting his head to one side before revealing his white teeth.

"Does that mean I'm a 5?"

She smiled too, her smile more teasing.  
"Maybe. That depends."

"On what?" he matched her teasing expression

"On whether you can keep up with me or not." Her lips returned to his as she rolled back on top, her lips moving against his with a new intensity. She was crouched over him, forcing her body into his with added force that tipped Tony over the edge; he sat up, forcing Ziva to slide into his lap, one leg on either side. They were both propped against the wall; Tony threw Ziva back onto the mat and resumed the position on top of her. His lips left hers and traced along her jaw line until they reached her ear.

"Why do you keep doing that?" he asked, lower than a whisper.

"You know I like it on top." she whispered back, turning her head on an angle so her lips met his once again.

XXX

Tony snored lightly, his hot breath warming Ziva's neck. She got up slowly and moved to gather her clothes and get dressed, quickly throwing on the NCIS sweats as quickly as possible, like every second extra would tear her heart apart even more then it was already torn.

When she was dressed, Ziva moved slowly and knelt beside Tony. She leaned forward and swiftly brushed her lips against his for the last time. She quickly gathered his laptop and left a note in place of it, it was simple:

'_Tony, you will never know how sorry I am.  
Forgive me.  
With all the love my heart contains,  
Ziva.'_

_  
_This note was probably more romantic then Tony ever thought Ziva was capable of but she needed him to know everything she felt and that was what her heart felt.

A tear slipped down her cheek as she walked away, not allowing another look back as the hole that had formed in place of her heart became hollower, each step she took away from him.

She wiped the tears off her cheek and walked faster, pushing past the pain and focusing on what she was headed to.

XXX

_**Thankyou for reading… I hope you enjoyed. I promise next chapter is longer!**_

_**Xox Mel**_


	5. A waking realisation

Hey everyone

_**Hey everyone! Thankyou all so much for the GREAT reviews… I'm really sorry for the shortness of the last chapter and for the late update! The updates may slow down for the next few chapters – I've got the last few weeks of production and exams coming up – but hang tight, I promise I will not leave you hanging.**_

_**Thanks, Xox Mel.**_

**Chapter five: A waking realisation  
**  
Gibbs glanced down at his watch as the elevator dinged, opening the doors to the second level; it was close to three o'clock in the morning and time to check on Tony and Ziva. He opened the gym door and stopped at sight of his senior agent unconscious on the gym floor.

His still poise only lasted a second before he ran over to Tony and knelt beside him.  
"DiNozzo" he said loudly, tapping his agent on the cheek with the back of his hand and checking to make sure he still had a pulse.

Tony opened his eyes then and grunted, his mind groggy and unsure of his surroundings. Then, all of a sudden, the events of an hour earlier came crashing down on him; he remembered what had happened between him and Ziva and what she had said about having to leave. From then on, it was blank. She must have hit him unconscious.

"DiNozzo, where's Ziva?"

"What?" Tony asked, his palm moving in small circled on his forehead, still receiving flickers of earlier, he felt the bump above his right temple and remembered Ziva hitting him. Hard.

"Where is _Ziva_?" Gibbs asked again, emphasising the syllables in Ziva's name clearly so his confused agent would comprehend better.

"Ziva." he mumbled, scrounging for his laptop with all the information on it that she wasn't allowed to see. He ran to where he had left it and discovered the note that Ziva had left in place of the laptop.

He ran his hands over the dents the pen had made against the paper and sighed, suddenly angry. He tore up the paper and threw it to the ground. "She's gone, Boss, and she's got the computer. It had everything on it."

Gibbs thought for a minute and then dialled McGee.  
"Yeah Boss" McGee answered on the second ring.

"McGee. Listen carefully. Ziva is gone, I want you to work with Abby on finding her, she's got Tony's laptop if that helps, just find her and call me when you get anything." He hung up the phone before McGee had a chance to ask any questions.

"With me." Gibbs commanded Tony, already half way out of the building. "We're going to have a talk with Mikael Dundovich."

XXX

"Are you alright?" Gibbs asked after a minute of driving silently. The murderous anger Tony felt must have been every bit evident in his facial expression.

"No" He answered, rubbing his brow. Of course he wasn't okay. He was angry with himself, livid that he would let Ziva out of his sight, to allow himself to give in like that, he had been blocking his feelings for Ziva since they began working together. Why now? He should have realised she was going to trick him, he was supposed to stay one step ahead of her, to save her from herself but he had failed her just as much as she had failed himself.

"You wanna explain what happened." This was a statement, not a question.  
Tony sighed and allowed his eyes to meet Gibbs'.

"I screwed up." he said in a low voice, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger before releasing it and letting it fall in front of him. "I finished the leads, I got every piece of information that I could scrounge together and I got a hit, I emailed it to you, McGee and Abby and then." He paused, moving his eyes up to evaluate his Boss' stare, he was facing the road straight ahead, his eyes in the same narrow shape he always held them in, as though he was squinting to read something written on the windshield - a hint of confusion behind them.

"And then she asked to see the information and I said 'I need to talk to Gibbs first' and then she started kissing me." he paused, measuring Gibbs' expression. His eyes tightened at the last part, like they did when he received some bad news, or when Tony said something stupid. In this case, it was both.

"Things got out of hand" He began rushing, his words slurring together as he tried to finish the rest of the story to the best of his ability, skipping through the not-so-necessary parts. "And then she apologised, saying she had to leave and hit me unconscious."

The memory was hard for Tony, Gibbs could tell that much,. He had always known that the pair flirted and teased each other but behind Tony's eyes, behind the exterior he could see that Tony cared for Ziva more then just two partners who have each other's backs.

"We'll find her, DiNozzo." His lips turned up in a small, fragile, comforting smile and he could see that the uncommon gesture meant a lot to Tony.

XXX

Ziva sat in her car 100 feet away from Michael's house, waiting for the right moment - the right indication that he was alone.

A switch flicked inside, causing his front room to light up, revealing just the black bearded man, dressed in a brown suit. Her eyes narrowed at the very sight of him, Mikael would die. Soon.

With her gun poised, she ran to his door, pressing against walls and crouching at the right times. She knew in order to get this job done, she would need to let go of the Ziva she now knew and convert back to what she was before NCIS, she needed to convert back to a killer.

Ziva knelt down, picking the lock quietly, mentally checking off the guns concealed at her waist, her ankle and the knife at her belt.

Quietly and slowly, she turned the doorknob and slipped inside.  
Her gun was pressed against her body and heart rate accelerated - not in anxiousness but in excitement.

Then -out of no where - the lights flicked on to reveal Mikael with two big men at his side, all three of them pointing large, machine guns at her.

"Hello Ziva. What took you so long? Sitting out in your car for an hour?" Clearly, Mikael was not intending any of these questions answered.

The two men closed in on Ziva and took her weapons.

"Sit, Ziva. Can my men get you anything?"

Ziva stayed standing, slowly she was remembering what it was like to be a killer, and unfortunately it was a second too late.

"Really, Ziva. We are going to have a difficult time together if you can't listen to me" His voice slithered, like a poisonous snake.

"Why are you after me, Mikael?" Ziva made her voice sound as venomous as her eyes looked. "It was a little over the top, killing three civilians just to make me fear your power."

"Let's not talk about that now. Let's talk about you first. We'll work up to that." he smiled a sinister smile. "How are you? How is NCIS?"

It didn't surprise Ziva that he knew she worked at NCIS; in fact, it wouldn't surprise her if he knew every detail about her life.

"Everything's fine." she answered through clenched teeth. "How is Sarah?"

Mikael stiffened and walked over to Ziva. She glared at him, watching every muscle twitch and taking in every single detail of the large room. He stood over her, their eyes meeting in a deadly gaze.

Swiftly, his hand hit her face. Ziva recoiled, still showing no emotion. The hit stung, it felt like he'd cut her, and he probably had.

"I see we're going to have to do this quicker then I had planned." he smiled at her bitterly. "Tie her up," he ordered his men in Hebrew.

The big men walked toward Ziva and it took all her strength not to try and kill them then and there - in the killing business, the more you struggle, the quicker it is all over.

Mikael left the room and came back in a second, holding a blade in one hand, fiddling with the tip of it with the other.

"Now." he began "Are you going to tell me where she is or do I have to make you?"

Ziva glared at him, the tight ropes pulling against her skin.  
"Who?"

He hit her again, this time she was definitely bleeding. "Where?" he repeated

"Mikael" she laughed a bitter, deadly laugh. "You know as well as me that it's going to take more than that for me to tell you anything." She knew she was putting her head in a noose but she used to work with this man, his next step would be untying her and taking it into a different room, when this happened she would make her escape.

He laughed again and moved his face to invade Ziva's personal space. "Oh I realise." he whispered, his breath against her face, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "But you must first realise that it has been 5 years. 5 years since I have seen my daughter and you will tell me where she is."

"You may leave now," he said loudly, addressing the two large, Israeli men behind him. The pair nodded and left the room without questioning their boss.

Slowly Mikael moved his face closer until his lips pressed against Ziva's, crushing them together. This continued for a few more seconds, the cold, hard kiss was nothing compared to Tony's soft, loving lips. When he broke off she spat at his feet, unleashing the full anger in her eyes.

He laughed out loud and leaned down to her ear. "I missed you. Ziva."

"That makes one of us. Mikael."

Mikael moved the blade to Ziva's lips, tracing the outline lightly, leaving a small cut along the edge of her bottom lip. "So beautiful." he murmured to himself, running the blade along her jaw line, cutting lightly as he went.

His lips returned to her skin, his poisonous tongue running along the cut he had just made.

He straightened himself and measured Ziva's expression, she had no emotion but behind her eyes there was a deadly glare that was becoming more and more evident in her features each second.

"Well Ziva, it certainly has been a while since we were together. How old were you? 19? 20?"

Ziva didn't answer; she continued to stare at him, waiting for him to get to the torture.

"You are not so talkative tonight, Ziva." he took a few steps away from her and began circling; Ziva knew that this was when the torture would start.

"I am simply waiting, Mikael." she said, leaning her head back.

"I do not remember you as the type of woman to wait," he said, smirking lightly. "Was it just I?"

"Do you have me confused for your wife?" she shot at him.

He moved to her again and grabbed her face tightly, crushing her lips with his. He moved both his hands to her jaw and opened her mouth, forcing his tongue access to her mouth.

"She never knew of us, Ziva. We could have been married. It is what your father always wanted." he whispered, his face inches from her's. "He still would have no objections."

"You may be Jewish but you are not Kocher, Mikael." she whispered back to him.

"You did not say that back then," he pointed out with a smile.

Ziva didn't respond, she continued to stare away from her ex-lover. He was a Mossad mission, to keep an eye on the main coercion and terrorist cells. Much like Jeanne was a mission to Tony, Mikael was a mission to Ziva and she made the same mistake as Tony, she fell in love with him during the mission. The difference, however was that Mikael broke her heart, not the other way around.

The two were in silence for a second and Mikael advanced on Ziva with the large blade.

"It hurts me to do this, Ziva," he said with no sincerity in his tone. "Now, for the final time. Where is she?"


	6. Fighting fate

Chapter six: Fighting fate

**Chapter six: Fighting fate.**

XXX

Ziva sat up in her chair, the cold blade held against her neck. She said nothing as he dug the blade in, drawing a light cut from her neck to collar bone.

"I know she married your brother, Kaniel." he said, moving the blade to her thigh and cutting straight down to her knee, the immediate stinging caused Ziva to inhale suddenly.

"What more do you need then that? Find Kaniel and you'll find her." She said in a low voice.

Mikael's eyes thinned out and he cut deeper, causing Ziva to suppress a whimper.

He smiled wickedly and closed the gap between him and the woman who he once loved.

"Did I hurt you Ziva? When I left?"

"Yes." She scowled, not bothering to lie, she wanted him to have that on his conscience, it could be one of the many things he would have to stew on when he was rotting in hell.

He nodded his head, and left the room, returning seconds later with a stack of photos.

"And who is this?" he asked, revealing photos of herself and Tony in the car two days earlier. The series of photos went from him forcing his jumper upon her until they were leaning in to kiss each other.

"You know who it is, Mikael." She said through tight lips, he knew everything about her.

"You love this man" this wasn't a question.

"What makes you think that?"

Mikael moved toward her and crouched down, the smile reappearing on his lips. "I know that look."

"You know nothing of this look." She whispered, staring daggers.

"So are you saying that you don't love him or are you denying ever loving me?" Mikael had the ability to twist words.

"I do not love Tony." She said, sitting up in her chair.

"So you loved me?"

Ziva was not even going to bother arguing with this man, she sat in silence, waiting for him to continue with his torture.

"I am not a stupid man, Ziva." Mikael smiled, realising he could take a different direction with this situation; he now knew how he could get her to talk. "I know that you will not talk. All I need is the appropriate leverage."

His smile was evil and Ziva did not for a second underestimate him, however she called his bluff. "What could you possibly have against me, Mikael?"

He smiled and moved closer to her until he was centimetres from her face. "You know what it is Ziva. What if I leaked to this Tony of your past?" he threatened with a smile. "Of what you did?"

A shiver went down Ziva's spine, she knew not to underestimate him and she was right, Ziva didn't care if he wanted to torture her to death but she would be damned if he brought Tony into this whole thing. There was so much about her past that she was ashamed of, so much she didn't want anyone to know about – especially Tony.

"What are you going to tell him, Dundovich?" she asked, barely masking the anxiety she felt.

"I'm not going to tell him anything, Ziva. As long as you tell me what I want to hear." He said in a low voice, a smile spreading across his face. "Leverage, remember?"

Ziva scowled at him, his knife still touching her skin. "What if I have nothing to tell you?" she asked, a smile playing on her lips; if there was one thing she knew how to do, it was making dangerous men angry. "What if I have no idea where she is?"

"You know where she is, Ziva." He said, his face serious now. "You know where your brother is."

Ziva chuckled. "Maybe instead of spending all this time spying on me, you should have just spied on Kaniel, he could have given you more information then I can give you."

"Where is Kaniel?" he asked, digging his blade into her calf muscle, causing it to tense up.

"In Israel." She answered, a small, smug smile evident through her features. "Six feet underground."

Mikael's eyes narrowed. He yelled loudly and struck Ziva on the face with the back of his hand. "And what of Sarah?" he growled.

"What makes you think I know where she is?" she recoiled.

There was a long silence and Mikael stood back and laughed. "You always were a tough one, Ziva. I wished we could have had something more."

"I never left." She narrowed her eyes at him; the pain from the day he left came rushing back to her.

"Yes, but you made it impossible to stay. Working under cover like that, it was only a small amount of time until you slipped up or revealed your real identity. You were only 20. You had no idea how to handle your mission."

Ziva's eyes widened slightly, she was surprised that Mikael knew he was just a mission. That was the reason he left, he found out who she was, that she was Mossad.

"Why did you not just kill me when you found out who I really was?" she asked, her face back to the plain, expressionless mask.

"Because." He smiled, leaning closer to her "I loved you too."

XXX

"This is it, Boss." Tony pointed to the dimly lit house of Mikael Dundovich.

"Okay, DiNozzo, you cover the front, I'll take the back." Just as Gibbs exited the car Mikael flickered past the dim light of the room holding a large knife.

Tony ran to the front door quietly and turned the doorknob. He entered the house and moved silently through it, hearing quiet murmurs coming from another room. He snuck behind a wall and listened closer, waiting for the right moment to kill this man.

"So Ziva, what will it be? Either you tell me where my daughter is or I tell your new boyfriend of your past. And then maybe I'll kill you both." Mikael was serious now, he'd had enough of the games and it was time for him to find his daughter.

"I thought you didn't believe in threats, Mikael."

He leaned closer to her until his lips were centimetres from Ziva's ear. "You have always been the acception to my rules, Ziva. Where is she?" he whispered, menace in his tone.

Ziva shrugged away and sat up straight, if she told Mikael where his daughter was she would be double-crossing Mossad. Sarah was now in Ziva's old position at Mossad as a control officer and if Mikael knew that he would see to it that someone died.

"Tell me now or I tell him, Ziva." He threatened, standing up and pulling out his phone.

Ziva sat in silence and weighed her options, if Mikael told Tony of her past it was just her problem, but if she told him where Sarah was then it was the problem of Mossad and as much as Ziva despised her father, she could not betray her country.

Mikael sighed and moved closer to Ziva, his face inches from her's.

"_Mrs_ Haswari." He said with a sinister smile on his face.

Gibbs' face dropped, he took a step forward, aiming his gun at Mikael.

"Drop the knife." He ordered.

Mikael looked at Ziva then back to Gibbs, he was thinking about still going for it.

"I'd do what he says, if I were you." Came the voice of Tony from behind him.

Mikael looked at Gibbs with blank astonishment, he was sure Ziva had had no back up; she always did things on her own. He dropped the knife and raised his hands in the air.

Ziva sat glancing down. They knew. Both of them now knew. Ari was not her brother – she was nowhere near related to him. He was her husband.

XXX

_**Okay, before any of you say anything – I realise that this doesn't make ANY sense… Just pretend that Ari was lying to Gibbs when he said the Dep. Director David was his father… and that Ziva was also lying. Please just realise that this is not supposed to be incest, in this fic, Ari and Ziva are not related. **_

_**Thankyou for reading – more to come soon! **_

_**Xox Mel**_

_**Also, sorry for the shortness of this chapter…**_

XXX


	7. Not like before

XXX

XXX

**This chapter may be a little out of character… see what you think – I promise it will get better. :P:P Again, remember – it's not incest – they are not related… assume everything that's been said about the Ziva/Ari thing in the show is a lie… **

XXX

**Chapter Seven: Not like before.**

Gibbs shoved Mikael into the back of his car and slammed the door shut, locking him in. Tony stood behind him, anger and sadness in his eyes.

Ziva hadn't looked at Gibbs or Tony since they discovered her secret. Gibbs moved closer to her, his eyes boring into her head. She could see the disappointment in his face without having to look up – she could just imagine it.

"Why didn't you tell me, Ziva?" Gibbs asked in a low voice.

Ziva looked up for the first time, her eyes glassy. "I couldn't, Gibbs… With a brother I could easily tell you why I loved him, he would be my brother, I have to love him. But I couldn't have you asking me why I married a monster. He killed Kate, your agent. He was a terrorist." She explained, her voice cracking throughout her speech.

"Did you love him?" he asked, his eyes were hard and narrow though behind there was softness, a hint of understanding.

Ziva was silent, in thought. "He was my husband"

"But did you love him?" Tony piped up for the first time, an almost tangible frustration in his voice.

Ziva glanced over to Tony. One look at his ashamed face caused her to tip over the edge. She fell into Gibbs' arms and cried.

"I'm sorry... I had no choice… My father…" tears streamed down her face and Gibbs stroked her hair.

"Shh. I know." He comforted her.

Gibbs held Ziva until she stopped crying and composed herself. She released the tight grip she had on Gibbs and wiped her eyes. Noticing Tony was no longer standing with them. Gibbs glanced to the navy blue dodge parked across the street and sighed.

He pulled out his cell phone and dialled, raising it to his ear.

"DiNozzo." Tony answered into it after a few rings.

"DiNozzo. I want you to take Ziva home. I'll handle Dundovich. I want you two working this out. You are going to stay partners so you may as well get over it." He hung the phone up, giving Tony no room to argue.

"Gibbs." Ziva began quietly "I think he needs time to accept this."

"Ziva. He's not angry because you were married to Ari." Gibbs said with a meaningful look on his face.

XXX

The pair had been driving in silence for twenty minutes and it looked as though no one was going to say anything. Ziva rearranged her position and shot a glance at Tony, he was rubbing his head where Ziva had hit him. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the headache was taking over.

"I'm sorry, Tony." Ziva finally piped up. "I'm really sorry."

"You don't sound sorry." He said, quoting the same lines she'd said just the day before. He was sick of the fighting. First the Jewish thing and now this; and that wasn't even counting before that with the whole Jeanne situation.

"I am. I had to do this," she said, not daring to look him in the eye.

Tony slammed his foot on the breaks, swerving to the side of the road and sending Ziva flying forward. "What did you have to do Ziva? You did nothing just now! You got all cut and beaten and for what? For us to come through and save you! Sure, you gave us a reason to put him in jail but Gibbs could have broken him! You knew that he was our main lead!"

Tony was angry, his eyes glassed over and he spoke in a quiet, deadly voice. "Why did you have to see this guy, Ziva?" he whispered, calming slightly.

"When I was 20 years old, I was sent on a sleeper mission, to keep and eye on the main coercion cells working outside Tel Aviv. I fell in love with Mikael, DiNozzo. He was my Jeanne. How do you think I knew that you made a grave error in judgement by falling in love with her? I've been there, Tony. The difference is that he broke my heart. For 8 years I've wondered why he left. 8 years I've wondered if he found out about me or if he just stopped loving me. Jeanne got off lucky – you told her the truth. Mikael gave me nothing." A single tear rolled down her cheek, collecting dried blood and dirt as it went.

Tony leaned over and put his arms around Ziva. She fell into his chest and let her tears drench his shirt. The pair stayed this way for a few minutes, both of them having no concept of time. Finally, Ziva leaned back and the two assumed their previous positions.

"Let's get you cleaned up." Tony said, pressing down on the gas pedal.

XXX

Tony unlocked Ziva's front door and flicked the light switch.

"Do you want some water, Ziva?" He asked, concern in his eyes. In the light of her living room he could see that Ziva had been cut badly. She had dried blood all over her face and cuts along her neck, lips and cheekbones.

She nodded and followed him into the kitchen.

"Thankyou." She smiled fragilely, accepting the glass. Ziva didn't realise how thirsty she was until she had downed the glass of water.

"Let's get you cleaned up." Tony smiled and led her down a hall into her bathroom; he knew where everything was. His smile made Ziva feel better. The second his eyes lit up, her heart lifted.

Tony filled a bowl with heated water and grabbed a handful of cotton balls and some antiseptic.

"I knew this would all come in handy some day." He smiled again, lightening the mood.

Ziva smiled too, sitting down and letting him wipe her face down, wincing slightly when he applied the antiseptic.

"Sorry. I'll be quick."

"That's okay." She whispered, suddenly realising how tired she was.

The pair sat in silence as Tony finished up with her cut face.

"Any other wounds?" he asked, noticing her bloodstained pants.

Ziva looked down, remembering where Mikael had cut her.

"One on my right thigh and another on my left calf."

Tony looked up and immediately Ziva's heart began to race.

"I can take care of them, if you want." She said, reading his eyes.

He blinked and shook his head, remembering that he was there to help her. It was unprofessional of him to make her take care of her own wounds; Ziva had been doing that her whole life and he would be damned if he was going to leave her for dead like Mikael or her Father or even Ari.

"No, that's fine. I'll take care of it."

Ziva nodded and slid off her jeans, wincing as the denim grazed against her open cuts. They were deeper than she remembered and Tony worried that she may need stitches.

Without another word being spoken, Tony leaned in, washing the blood off Ziva's leg. Her heart pounded against her chest as he cleaned her up. Something was definitely different and would never be the same again. Had this been the previous day, Tony would be laughing, making jokes and sexual innuendos at this very chore; but today he was solemn, sad. She had ruined their relationship with her dumb plan.

"Sorry." He apologised, standing up. "If I stung you."

"That's okay." she smiled weakly, getting slightly annoyed with how out of character the two were acting.

Tony held Ziva's face in his hand, outlining the cuts of her lips with his thumb.

"Are you okay, Ziva?" he asked, his face suddenly sad.

Ziva looked into Tony's eyes and leaned in, closing the gap between their lips until they met. The kiss was gentle and continued for a few seconds. Ziva leaned forward, trying to deepen the kiss and Tony pulled away, sudden flashbacks of earlier that night/morning coming back to him.

"I'm sorry." He apologised. "I think I better go." Tony had no problem saying the words 'I'm sorry' to Ziva. Neither of them believed it to be a sign of weakness amongst themselves.

"No." she called, maybe a little too loudly. "You can stay on the couch if you want to."

"Ziva. I can't." he sighed, turning to leave. She jumped up and grabbed his arm.

"Tony, it's 5.30 in the morning. Please just stay - you need sleep." She begged.

He gazed into her eyes and shrugged away. "Sorry, Ziva. Not after…"

"What? After you found out I was married to Ari?!" she yelled back at him, it wasn't fair that he was judging her due to who she was once married to – she never even loved the man.

Tony spun around and walked back to Ziva, his face inches from her's. "Ziva. I don't care that you were married to Ari; I don't judge you for that. It's just. After last night… I can't…"

Ziva nodded her head slowly, ashamed of what she had done. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

Tony walked quietly out of Ziva's house, leaving her behind, tears falling from her eyes. She had ruined the only special thing she had going on in her life just to get a small piece of closure. She had used the one man who was willing to give her another chance, the one man who she would gladly give her own life for. Ziva collapsed to the floor and cried into her hands for what felt like hours she. She heard her door click back open and stood up quickly, Tony standing mere meters from her.

"Why did you kiss me?" he asked firmly, looking her straight in the eye.

XXX

_**Okay, I realise this was WAY out of character and I'm really sorry but I just had 6 hours of rehearsal and I'm tired… but that's not an excuse – I shall not make excuses. Thankyou so much for reading… I'm sad that this has happened and I have no idea how to get them out of it so IDEAS would be FAN-tastic!**_

Xox Mel

_**XXX**_


	8. Make or break

**Before I start this chapter I really just need to thank Jessabelle84 for the FANTASTIC essay she wrote in the comments area. My god. I thought I had hit a brick wall with this thing (seriously, just ask my sister. I was jumping up and down and writing from a million different angles and NOTHING worked so thankyou so much!) This story is now going have many more chapters because of you. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! **

**Other thanks and cyber hugs to EVERYONE else who reviewed (I'm serious, as a person who reviews people's work I know how it sounds when they say 'thankyou to everyone' but I truly, truly mean it.) Thankyou all so much for all the reviews! You have made my Friday! **

**Xox Mel**

**On a completely different note; Today is ANZAC day (You all know what that is right? Australian, New Zealand army corps.) Thankyou to all the soldiers that fought on the shores of Gallipoli 90 years ago,**

**_They will not grow old _**

**_As we that are left grow old_**

**_Age shall not wary them_**

**_Nor the years condemn _**

**_At the going down of the sun _**

**_And in the morning _**

**_We shall remember them_**

**_Lest We Forget._**

XXX

Chapter eight; Make or break

_"Why did you kiss me?" he asked her firmly, looking her strait in the eye._

"What?" Ziva asked, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Why did you kiss me? You could have just gotten close to me, hugged me and then knocked me unconscious. Why did you go all the way?" Tony asked, his voice cracking slightly due to the lump pressing against his throat. This was hard for him, Ziva could tell that much.

She stood silent, not knowing the answer. Why did she kiss him? She had been trained how to knock a person out a million different ways, why did she have to hurt them both in doing what she did?

"I-I don't know." She whispered, not daring to look her partner in the eye.

"What do you mean? How can you not know? It's a simple enough question. Why did you kiss me? You could have done anything. Anything else would have hurt less." He said, his eyes daring Ziva to meet his gaze.

"I don't know." She repeated; her head still aimed at the floor.

Tony stood, still staring at her. His anger was growing each passing second. The pain in his head was slowly coming back due to the memory of it.

"Anything else would have hurt less." He said, moving closer to Ziva until they were mere feet from one another. "Anything else you could have done. So I'll ask you again. Why did you kiss me?"

Ziva slowly raised her head, her eyes creeping up Tony's body until they were staring directly into his green, bloodshot eyes, revealing his full anger and pain.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way." She whispered, her eyes not moving from his.

Tony moved closer until their faces were mere inches from one another.

"How was it supposed to happen, Ziva?" he asked, his eyes glassing over.

"I was meant to just hit you and leave." She was whispering, her head hanging slightly.

"Well what stopped you? What went wrong." His anger was escalating, she wasn't making any sense and he still had no closure. No answer.

"You… ah" Ziva was having trouble articulating what she was feeling. She could never word her feelings properly.

"I what? What could I have possibly done?!" Tony yelled; he couldn't understand what she was trying to say that was so damn hard.

"You were there for me!" she cracked, "Tony, don't you get it? No one has ever been there for me in my life! Not Mikael, not my father, not even my husband. Someone was after me and you were there. You were actually going to kill him because you didn't want to see me hurt!"

Tony stood absorbing this information, his eyes not leaving Ziva's. Finally he moved to her and wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry into his shirt.

"Shh" he comforted her, his hands entangling her hair.

They stayed that way until Ziva stopped crying. She moved back to face him, their faces close. "I'm so sorry." She whispered.

Tony said nothing. He moved his hand to her face and brushed the tears off her cheek, running his hand lightly over her cut. He ever so slightly moved in, and brushed his nose against hers. He gazed deeply into her eyes and before she had the chance to break eye contact, he leaned in and touched his lips to her's lightly. His lips held against her's for a second, slowly the surprise and confusion melted away and she joined into the kiss; moving her lips with his. The kiss depended slightly and Tony moved his hands from her face and cupped them around her neck. Ziva left her hands resting against his chest, for once too exhausted to deepen the kiss further.

XXX

Ziva woke at around 6pm to the setting sun. She sat up and squinted in the twilight. She turned to the left side of her bed and her heart fell upon seeing only a few pillows and messed up sheets.

She slipped out of bed and her legs throbbed from where Mikael had cut her.

"Tony?" she called, noticing that her kitchen light was on.

Ziva walked to her kitchen, limping slightly due to the burning pain that was getting worse and worse each step she took.

Tony entered the house and dropped his pizza boxes, running to catch Ziva as she stumbled.

She smiled up at him, her calf muscle burning.

"I'm fine." She said, answering his eyes.

Tony's eyes narrowed, his features painted with heavy scepticism. "See Ducky tomorrow."

Ziva was about to argue with him but decided against it, he was probably right anyway. Her eyes moved to the pizza boxes that lay in a surprisingly neat stack on the ground.

Tony smiled and bent down, knocking Ziva's knees in and catching her as she fell. She laughed loudly as he carried her to the couch, placing her down gently and kissing her lightly on the lips.

"Stay." He commanded running back to the kitchen only to appear a minute later with two pizza boxes.

"Toda." She smiled as he handed her a box.

The two ate in silence for a few minutes before Tony sat up, suddenly deep in thought.

"Ziva?" he asked. "I realise that we only 'got together' about 12 hours ago but I was wondering what we are going to do about Gibbs?"

Ziva thought for a second, relieved that she didn't have to the whole girly 'where is this going' thing.

"I say we listen to the director one this one." She began "Whatever Gibbs doesn't know…"

"Can't hurt us." He finished her sentence "So we hide it?"

"Unless you have a better plan."

"No. I don't." Tony frowned in concentration. "Uh Ziva?"

"Tony?" she smiled, taking a bite of her pizza.

"Just one thing. How do we keep a secret from two trained investigators, the director of NCIS, a forensic scientist and a psychological profiler?" When he put it that way the task seemed impossible, someone was bound to notice.

Ziva looked up with a flirtatious smile on her face. "You aren't scared are you?"

Tony looked up and matched her expression, "Nope. Excited"

XXX

**Hehe! In the tiny case that no one got that end part, it is the same lines they say in 'under covers' but the roles were reversed. I feel like a bitch pointing that out cause I reckon you are all sitting their like: Yeah, I got that… hehe! Anyway. I'm really sorry about this chapter – its quite OOC and I'm not too happy with it (I PROMISE I'm not fishing here) but as the next chapters come up it will be more in character… Next up is dodging the two trained investigators, the director of NCIS, a forensic scientist and a psychological profiler (as I wrote that I was thinking, Geez, this is going to suck for Tony and Ziva!)**

**Xox Mel**


	9. Besting the best

HEY

**XXX**

**HEY! Thankyou all for the wonderful reviews! **

**I am SO sorry that I haven't updated but I haven't been on the computer since Friday, we open West side story in 16 days and I've just been struck down with Laryngitis – not good for half the cast of a musical to be struck down with 16 days before opening night. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience and everything will be quicker from now on. :P:P I promise! **

**Xox Mel**

XXX

**Chapter nine: besting the best.**

Ziva sat at her desk on Monday morning, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. Gibbs was most likely in MTAC or with the director and McGee was due in any minute.

She heard the loud ding from the elevator and snapped her head around to find McGee stepping out, coffee in hand.

"Morning McGee." She greeted in her usual morning voice.

"Good Morning Ziva." He responded, stopping to inspect her face. "Ah. Wha-what happened to you? Shouldn't you go to Ducky?"

"She's not dead, probie." Tony smiled, appearing as if from nowhere and whacking McGee on the back of the head in one swift movement as he walked past.

"Ziva." He acknowledged with a smile. Their eyes exchanged a glance that only the two of them would understand. It lasted for a second and they both broke off, realising at the same time that they couldn't exchange glances that would give them away.

"Tony." She smiled back; her gaze returning to McGee, his face slowly coming back to life.

"How's your leg?" Tony asked after the brief silence. It wasn't risky to ask how her leg was; even Gibbs knew about that one – the blood kind of gave it away.

"Getting better. I doubt I need to see Ducky." They could both see that their conversation was verging on risky.

"See, that's what I was talking about – I didn't think she was dead." McGee piped up, moving back to his desk.

"I'm sure you didn't, elfy." Tony smiled.

McGee just rolled his eyes and sat at his desk, it was going to be a long day for him.

Gibbs marched past at that moment, making an eye contact with Tony that almost convinced him one hundred percent that he knew what had happened. "With me, David." He ordered, walking straight past the bullpen.

Ziva jumped up and ran to catch up with her boss, limping slightly due to the shooting pain in her calf muscle.

She got into the elevator with seconds to spare.

The two stood in silence for a few seconds, Ziva fidgeted slightly, waiting for Gibbs to hit the emergency switch.

Her heart pounded against her chest and she was sure that he knew about her and Tony. Immediately she decided that she would just deny anything he threw at her.

The two stood in silence, Ziva wondering why her boss hadn't hit the emergency switch yet; it was very out of character.

Finally the elevator reached its destination and Ziva was surprised to see they were on the bottom floor.

"What are we doing here, Gibbs?" Ziva asked, her eyes narrow in confusion.

"I want you to get your leg checked out." He said, stepping out of the elevator.

She sighed in relief and stepped forward to catch up to Gibbs. "You could have just told me to go here." She pointed out.

Gibbs turned and smiled. "Just making sure." He explained, leaving Ziva and Ducky alone.

XXX

Tony sat at his desk, worrying about what Gibbs was asking Ziva – usually they were back by now if it was one of his 'use-the-elevator-as-an-office' moments.

Tony snapped his head up as the elevator announced it's arrival and Gibbs stepped out, walking toward the bullpen.

"Hey boss." Tony said, trying to act as non-chalant as possible. "Where's Ziva?"

"With Ducky." He answered, marching past to see the director in MTAC. Lately he had been seeing the director more than usual and the team had begun to suspect something was going on. Of course, they all have been around Gibbs long enough to know that there are just some questions you never get an answer to.

"Oh." He said, incredibly relieved that he didn't have to have THAT conversation with Gibbs… it was too early for that anyway. Tony knew that one day – if all things went well with Ziva – he would have to explain things to his boss. He knew that everyday extra they kept this from Gibbs the more they would cop when they finally came clean with him, but it didn't matter, they were together. And to Tony, that was all that mattered.

"Hey DiNozzo…"McGee called, pulling Tony out of his reverie.

"Can I help you, McElf?"

"What happened yesterday?" he asked, lowering his voice slightly. "With Ziva…"

"We got her back." Tony responded, turning back to his computer. It was clear he wasn't going to give any more information than that. Thinking about it made him angry. First he thought of the fact that she used him, which made him think of Mikael, and Mikael made him think of the fact that Ziva was once in love with the scum.

XXX

The day dragged by with deskwork, not giving Tony or Ziva much of a chance to be alone together. They threw in the occasional tease but nothing out of the ordinary to what they usually did. Finally it hit quitting time and the two stood up, almost a little two quickly.

"Going somewhere?" Gibbs asked, not bothering to look up to his agents who were obviously more than busting to get out of there.

"Um. No, Boss…?" Tony answered, confused as to what Gibbs was leading to. It was time to leave.

"I want the Dundovich case filed and finished before you leave, DiNozzo." He ordered, standing up and walking up the stairs to MTAC.

Tony sighed and slumped in his seat, turning his computer back on. "See ya, Probie." He said sulkily. "Enjoy your night, David." He added bitterly.

McGee laughed smugly as he walked past Tony's desk "Night, guys."

Tony's eyes narrowed and he threw a piece of paper at the back of McGee's head.

He turned and shook his head, his eyes narrowing.

Ziva just shook her head, smiling.

"Aren't you leaving?" Tony asked, typing away at his computer.

"Depends…"

"On what?" He asked, looking up from the screen.

"On how long this is going to take you."

He smiled slightly and let out a small laugh. "A half hour, maybe more," he began "It all depends."

"On what?" she asked in the same tone he used on her.

"On how distracted I get."

She smiled at him seductively and turned away to sit at her own desk, walking with a little more butt then she usually did.

Tony worked hard on not being distracted by Ziva's constant teasing and finished his work within 45 minutes. He stretched his arms up and shut down the computer, smiling hugely.

"Finished and sent to the boss-man." He grinned.

Ziva jumped up with a smile and grabbed her coat "I'll walk you to your car." She said.

Though no one was around, Ziva still played the part, knowing that anyone could be listening even if they were just walking past.

Tony smiled and sped up to catch up with her.

The two got into the elevator side by side. The doors closed and the elevator begun to move down. Ziva leaned forward and hit the emergency switch. It jolted to a stop and Tony began to laugh.

Ziva leaned in and kissed him passionately, her hands running through his hair.

The kiss continued for a few seconds and Tony broke free, looking toward the ground.

"This may be the wrong moment but the whole elevator thing is reminding me of Gibbs…"

Ziva rolled her eyes and punched Tony lightly in the stomach. She hit the elevator switch and smiled, laughing lightly to herself.

XXX

_**Okay… I know. I know – please don't even point it out… this was supposed to be an awesome chapter but it didn't work out. It's one of those chapters where if you expand it with what you want it's far TOO long but if you leave it it's too short… And I'm sorry but I went with the short option! I'm so sorry but there's some good stuff coming up – I swear… PLEASE bear with me here… PLEASE**_

_**Xox Mel**_


	10. Working for it

****

Hey all… see? What did I tell you about quick update!… Just a small note - I don't own NCIS (as you have probably already guessed) However I DO co-own MAS photography… In this story I am known as the tall, attractive one flirting with DiNozzo who goes by the name of 'Melissa' (funny that…) though I look ABSOLUTELY nothing like I describe myself and if you want the real description of me I'm short, brunette and I'd be wearing a dodgy flannelette with trackie pants. The description of my friends (and models) is real with the exception of the age of us, we are 16. :D

That wasn't a very small note was it?

Xox Mel(issa)

Chapter 10: Working for it

The weeks went by, Tony and Ziva bonded strongly and became experts at keeping their relationship a secret from the rest of the team, Gibbs –in his gut- knew that something was off but not once did Tony nor Ziva slip up. They stagged fights, had days where they talked too much and days where they didn't talk at all.

Time went quickly when they were together and eventually two months had passed.

Tony sat at his desk, staring across to Ziva. She was looking especially nice that day as Tony was taking her out after work. Over the past week their had been a tension between the two and neither knew what it was from. They had just been getting on each other's nerves and neither could pinpoint why. Tonight was going to make the difference… If they could just get through that morning.

"Got something boss." Tony said on sight of Gibbs, sitting up in his chair to make it look as though he was working hard. "2 hours before Smith was murdered he made a call to a woman called Melissa Richards. She's one of the owners of MAS photography - real rich too. You want me to check it out?" it was hard for Tony to hide his excitement over going to a modelling agency, after all, he was still DiNozzo.

Gibbs nodded "Take David." he said before walking to the back elevator.

"On it." Tony responded, walking to Ziva's desk. She hung up her phone and grabbed her bag.

The two walked silently to the elevator and got in. The doors closed and Tony leaned forward to Ziva's ear.

"Happy two months" he whispered, kissing her neck.

She turned with an odd look on her face. "I never got the whole anniversary thing." she said "I thought it was every twelve months."

"I was just trying to be nice." Tony said quietly to himself - she had been like this all week and it was really starting to get on his nerves.

XXX

Tony and Ziva entered the modelling agency and walked through the entrance hall. Ziva's heels echoed through the huge room as they hit the black marble floor. The two reached the reception desk and Ziva hit the bell, maybe just a little too harshly. Along the wall backing the desk were three huge framed pictures, the middle was of the three founding members of MAS altogether with the original cover art from when the three were only 16. The photographer - Melissa - was in the middle holding the camera to her eye and she was flanked by her two models, Anna on her right and Sophie on her left. The picture was taken in the reflection of a dark, dirty window.

After a few more seconds the receptionist walked out, a huge friendly grin on her face.

"Good morning. How might we help you today?" chirped the plump, orange haired woman.

Tony smiled and held open his ID for the woman to inspect.

"MCS?" she asked, a blank look on her face.

"NCIS." Ziva corrected rather harshly. She was in a bad mood. Tony was getting on her nerves for no particular reason and she just wanted the day to end. "Naval Criminal Investigative Service"

"Oh I'm sorry. I left my glasses at home." The woman smiled, this time at Tony.

"That's alright." Tony smiled warmly, elbowing Ziva lightly. "I was wondering if we could please speak to Miss Richards?"

The receptionist leaned to look at something and turned back to Tony and Ziva "Yes, I'll just buzz you through. Go right ahead and take a seat"

"Thankyou." Ziva smiled in a clearly forced manner.

The pair walked through in a tension filled silence, both annoyed with each other, both having no reason.

They got to a door and sat down, a fair space between the two. Usually Tony would press her or joke around trying to either lighten the moment or make it worse but today he was sick of it. Sick of the fact that she had been in a foul mood all week.

The door finally clicked open after what felt like hours to Tony and Ziva. A tall, attractive brunette walked out wearing a black, tight fitting T-shirt with blue skinny leg jeans and knee high boots.

"Hi." she smiled flirtatiously at Tony and looked him up and down "I'm Melissa Richards, how can I help you?" she asked, opening the door wider to usher her two visitors in.

Tony instinctively smiled and entered, Ziva trailing behind with narrow eyes.

Melissa sat down at the end of a long, mahogany desk with two other women. They were both thin and around 6 foot in height.

"Anna, Sophie this is…" Melissa began, realising she didn't actually know the names of the two agent.

"Sorry. I'm Special agent Anthony DiNozzo and this is my partner, Ziva David." Tony smiled, turning to Ziva.

"Pleased to meet you." Smiled Sophie. Sophie had long, dark brown hair and a flawless complexion. From just glancing at her you could tell she was the kind of woman that turned heads everywhere she went.

Anna was her counterpart. She had short blonde hair that fell into styled curls. Dimples formed in her cheeks as she smiled at the two agents.

"What is all this about?" Melissa piped up, directing her question at Ziva this time. "What does the Navy have to do with MAS?"

Ziva's face dropped slightly. "I'm surprised you know what NCIS stands for." she said in a more-or-less bitchy tone.

Melissa's eyes narrowed "Not all models are dumb, Agent David." she scowled.

Tony was quick to jump in and stop them before a cat fight went off - he did not want to see Ziva kill one of these girls.

"Ah. She didn't mean it like that. She meant it as not many people know we exist so she's surprised… in general… not because you are a model…" he re counted over his words to check if what he had just said made sense and nodded.

Melissa relaxed in her seat and the two sat down ready to start the questions.

XXX

"So did you get enough information off her, DiNozzo?" Ziva asked, slamming the car door shut as she hopped in the passenger side.

"What are you talking about?" Tony asked, closing his door lightly.

"I'm talking about you and that 'photographer' that couldn't keep her eyes off you, you were both practically drooling." she scowled.

"No I wasn't. unlike _some_ people I'm content with my relationship." He needed to get everything he'd been bottling up all week off his chest.

"Well I wasn't the one flirting with three models 10 minutes ago." she pointed out.

"I wasn't flirting - I would never do that to you, you know that."

"I don't know that. Part of Mossad training was to trust no one."

That cut Tony deep. He trusted Ziva with his life - he had always trusted Ziva with his life and he just found out she trusted him with nothing.

"You don't trust me?" he asked, hurt.

She couldn't answer him. He wouldn't understand. She trusted him as her partner but in relationships she had been hurt so many times that she couldn't trust anyone.

"If you don't trust me, Ziva. What the hell are we doing here?" Tony asked, lowering his voice.

"Tony. Just drop it. We're having a good time. Don't ruin it." she whispered, staring into her lap.

"Ziva… I've had enough of having a good time. I thought we were doing something here - you said to me once that you thought I needed a woman - not a girl. What are you, Ziva?" his voice cracked slightly - this relationship was not good for his health, mental and physical.

Ziva didn't answer him - she had nothing to say that wouldn't ruin everything. She wanted more than anything else to tell him that she loved him but that would just scare him off.

Tony sighed and started up the car again, wondering if the relationship was even worth it.

XXX

****

Okay… Well I just realised this one has a lot to go - lots of story lines. Sorry I didn't put in any more about Mikael and Tony (I liked the idea of that fist fight..) however there is always more room for a fight. Hope you enjoyed this chapter :P:P

Xox Mel


	11. Fatal slip up

Hey everyone – I'll keep this short

**Hey everyone – I'll keep this short! I'm SO sorry about the late update! Much thanks to all the lovely comments! I've made you wait long enough so with out further a due, here is:**

Chapter 11: Fatal slip up

Tony pulled his car up outside Ziva's house, sighing heavily. Throughout the day the situation with Ziva had progressively gotten worse and he was beginning to question whether they should keep trying or just leave each other alone.

He shook off the thought and rang her doorbell, putting on his best DiNozzo smile.

Ziva opened the door dressed in the same clothes she'd been wearing all day at work. Tony's face dropped.

"Are you serious?" he asked, exasperated. "Ziva, did you completely forget? For someone with a photographic memory you really do forget the important things."

Ziva stood up straight, narrowing her eyes slightly. "I did not forget, Tony." She said, dragging the syllables in his name "I thought that since you liked my cooking we could eat here instead."

She opened the door wider and revealed a nicely set table with candles. Tony sighed and moved inside, feeling like a total idiot.

"Ziva. I'm so sorry; I sounded like a total jerk" he smiled weakly; full aware that he had just made an already tedious situation worse.

"I know." She smiled flirtatiously, turning toward him to lean up and kiss him on the lips. "I've been thinking." She started

"Always a dangerous pastime." Tony smiled, putting his arm around her and leading her to the couch,

Ziva rolled her eyes and continued, "Happy two months."

"Ha! What ever happened to not getting the two month thing?"

Ziva just rolled her eyes and leaned toward Tony, kissing him lightly on the lips. He responded eagerly and deepened the kiss, already feeling better about the relationship.

The kiss continued for a few seconds until the buzzer from Ziva's oven went off. The two sat up and Ziva pushed Tony away, walking to her kitchen with a little more 'butt' than usual.

Tony fell back on the couch grumbling. His heart was pounding against his chest with his stomach doing little flips. Mentally he compared his relationship with Ziva to his relationship to Jeanne.

He remembered being in love with her and the feeling he felt then was the same as he was feeling now. Although with her it was more romantic and felt like a movie; Ziva had a certain flair to her that Jeanne never had. She was so sassy and sexy, so hard to handle.

Ziva walked back in and broke Tony's reverie.

"Dinner's ready" she smiled, grabbing his hands to pull him up. He instead pulled her onto the couch with him and kissed her forehead, smiling.

"I missed you." He whispered, kissing below her ear.

She smiled teasingly again and got up, this time successfully pulling Tony up with her and leading him back to her dining room.

"My dear." He began in a posh accent "do take a seat, the butler will be out with your food any second. Until then, you may enjoy the comical entertainment provided by one Anthony DiNozzo."

Ziva laughed and shook her head, pulling him by his collar and pressing her lips against his.

"Wanna skip dinner?" she asked, smiling.

Tony stood for a second in mock thought. He leaned down and kissed her on the neck picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder.

XXX

Tony woke in the middle of the night to Ziva's loud snoring. He laughed to himself and rolled over onto his back, the same heart pounding feeling he'd had the previous day.

He was almost convinced he was falling in love with Ziva. It had been two months. It was normal to feel this way, wasn't it? He tossed and turned in his mind. After the abomination that was his and Ziva's two-month anniversary he doubted immensely that Ziva felt the same way he did. He didn't even know how Ziva felt. Whether she loved him back, whether she even could love again. All he knew was that he had never felt this way about anyone – not even Jeanne.

Finally, Tony slipped back to sleep, all the while his mind not leaving Ziva.

XXX

The pair returned to work on Monday, refreshed and ready for another week. Tony had left on Saturday morning to give Ziva her weekend – they had been spending too much time together and the last thing either of them wanted was to get sick of the other.

They arrived together that day by coincidence and caught the elevator together, already acting out the role of "just friends."

"Hey Guys." McGee greeted the pair, standing with a tall, attractive man. "This is Special Agent Andrews. He'll be working with us on our next case."

Ziva's face lit up and she smiled, walking over to greet the new agent. "I'm Ziva David."

Tony's eyes narrowed and he followed suit with his partner, though not willing to outstretch for a handshake.

"Please." Smiled Agent Andrews, "call me James."

"James." Ziva agreed. Turning to face Tony.

"Anthony DiNozzo." Tony introduced himself, nodding his head in acknowledgment "Why exactly are you working with us… _James_?"

McGee laughed lightly to Ziva. Tony always got jealous whenever male agents were sent in to help the team.

James smiled to Ziva and turned to the giant plasma in the middle of the bullpen. He clicked the remote and a picture of Mikael appeared. Ziva and Tony stiffened at the same time.

"What the hell is he doing up there?" asked Gibbs, joining them in the bullpen.

"Uh. Boss. This is Special agent Andrews." McGee explained, standing up on his boss' entrance. Gibbs shot him a look, "But you already knew that" he added, realising Gibbs wouldn't just let anybody be in the team without first having an argument with Jenny about it.

"Three weeks ago this man was arrested-" James started up again, only to be interrupted a second time.

"Yeah, by us."

"Yes. By you. However, 18 hours ago he escaped prison and is thought to be possibly leaving the country." He finished, turning to Gibbs.

"He won't leave." Ziva said quietly to Tony. She hadn't spoken about Mikael since that night; she was the only one who knew exactly what went on.

"How do you know?" Tony asked, his voice just as low as hers.

"He wouldn't. Not until he knows where his daughter is." She explained

"Well how would he find out where she is?"

"Only one person knows where she is."

"Who's that?" He asked, not realising how close he was to Ziva. Gibbs watched on with narrow eyes, confused as to their closeness.

Ziva turned her head to meet Tony's gaze. "Me." She answered.

XXX

It was 22 hundred hours in the bullpen and Ziva had filled Gibbs in on the situation he had ordered an eye to be kept on her at all times. She was getting sick of the same man coming after her all the time however, on this occasion she didn't object to having to be babysitted as much. The stretched her arms up and looked around the bullpen. Gibbs and McGee were with Abby and it was just her, Tony and James now. She smiled to herself and got up, walking over to Tony's desk. It had been a while since they did some teasing.

She leaned over his desk and stared at him. Tony's eyes narrowed but he didn't look up or break his façade.

"Can I help you, Officer David?" he asked, staring at his computer screen.

"I was just wondering what you think of Special Agent Andrews over there?" she asked, tilting her head to gesture toward their guest.

"Pfft special agent…" Tony began, his voice evident with jealousy, "He's a probie."

"Still…" Ziva teased, "He seems very capable."

He scowled at her and turned to James, "Agent Andrews." He began "How many weapons is each NCIS agent issued?"

"Well the standard NCIS agent would have one sidearm, concealed at the waist, a backup strapped to the leg and most likely they would be carrying a knife too." He answered without hesitation.

"Very good." Tony responded with what only Ziva could define as fake enthusiasm. "Now tell me, James; do you value your life at all?"

"Yes sir, I do. Why do you ask?" asked James, confused.

"Because chances are you will loose it if you do not stop staring at my butt." Ziva said, snapping her head around.

James shot his head down and continued writing, his face turning red.

"Sorry, Ma'am."

Tony's eyes widened and he jumped at Ziva, grabbing onto her arms "No. Ziva." He said, sighing. Newbies always found a way to just keep digging.

"He called me _Ma'am_," She whispered, trying to pull her arm free.

Tony rolled his eyes and walked her back to her desk, making sure she sat before walking back to his desk. As soon as he sat down his desk phone rang.

"DiNozzo." He answered, his eyes not leaving Ziva's. "We'll be right down." He said, hanging up.

"Abby?" Ziva asked, standing up.

"Yep, they've got something."

The two stepped into the elevator and turned, waiting for the doors to close. James walked up to the elevator and took one look at Ziva's face – a look enough to make any man cower in the corner.

"I'll take the stairs." He said, turning on his heels.

The elevator doors closed and Ziva laughed to herself, leaning forward to flick the emergency switch.

"Haven't done this one in a while." Tony smiled.

Ziva rolled her eyes and pushed him against the control panel, flicking the emergency switch off in doing so. Both not realising, both continuing the kiss.

Ziva hitched her leg over Tony's hip and deepened the kiss.

At that moment everything stopped.

The elevator doors opened to reveal their boss, Leyroy Jethro Gibbs standing, staring and knowing full well what was now going on.

XXX

**Predictable… Yes… But still PRICELESS!! Hahahaha! Anywho I hope you all enjoyed that! I promise the next chapter will be REALLY soon… like, sooner than this one was… I'm SO sorry about the late update… My only excuse is we open (West side) in like 7 days and the rehearsals are going until about 9!! I have to tape NCIS next week!! (I was REALLY not happy about that) **

**They can take my time, they can take my energy, they can make me sing until I get laryngitis, and they can make me dance until I collapse… But they CANNOT take my NCIS!! **

**Hope you enjoyed! **

**Xox Mel **

**XXX**


	12. The important and predictable rule 12

Hey everyone

**Hey everyone! Thankyou for all the reviews! Enjoy the next chapter! :P:P Also, some of you have requested a better description of Agent Andrews – on re-reading I realised that I have infact skipped over his details… This chapter is fairly Tony and Ziva related so he'll be explained in greater detail probably next chapter :P. So for now enjoy!**

**Chapter 12: The all important and predictable rule #12**

**XXX**

"Ah. We'll go." Piped up Abby, pulling McGee away, no doubt for hours dissecting of what had just happened.

Gibbs just stood, staring at them as a few awkward minutes went by; occasionally Tony and Ziva would exchange glances, they felt like naughty children being sent to the principal's office though this was worse, the worst that could happen in the principles office was expulsion. Finally Gibbs spoke.

"Both of you, Director's office, now." He said in a viscous tone, it was low and eerie.

No one said anything, all three of them silently trailed into Jenny's office; Gibbs knew she had gone home but he figured it was more private, he picked the lock to her office and walked in; Tony and Ziva silently sat down at one end, Gibbs at the other.

"How long?" Gibbs asked, quietly.

"Two months" Ziva piped up, it was the first thing she had said in a while and her voice was croaky

There was silence as Gibbs thought for a second. Should he end what his agents had? Could he ruin their happiness? He weighed the options. Him and Jenny had once been in the same situation as Tony and Ziva – it was crazy just how similar the two situations were – and that had ended badly. He'd been in love with her and she'd broken his heart. He couldn't have the same thing happen to his agents – to let their relationship cloud their judgement, stand in the way of their work.

"Alright, end it" Gibbs finally said, staring at the desk in front of him.

"No" Ziva said a little too quickly; Gibbs knew she wasn't going to back down but he also knew they couldn't keep going on with it. They would have to choose.

"NCIS or each other" he said, lifting his head to meet Ziva's deadly gaze. She was about keep arguing when Tony gave her a look that told her to stand down. Gibbs wasn't bluffing and he knew it.

The three sat in silence for a minute, absorbing this ultimatum they'd been given. The feeling in Tony's chest returned. His heart beating against his chest twice as fast; though this time it was different, sadder. He was going to loose a piece of his heart whichever decision he made.

"Boss…" He began, swallowing. "I'd like to hand in my resignation." He said in a monotone, staring into Ziva's eyes, his glassing over.

Gibbs was slightly shocked by this. Tony had called his bluff and in the meantime he had lost one of his best agents.

A lump formed in Ziva's throat and she stiffened.

"No." she said, standing up. "Tony, don't." she whispered, turning to him.

"I'm not loosing you, Ziva." He said just as quietly. "Not now."

"You're loosing me anyway." She said again, trying to make him reconsider. She couldn't watch Tony loose his job but at the same time she couldn't quit – if she quit she would be sent back to Mossad. Her heart ached already and anger burnt inside her. Why was Gibbs such a hypocrite? Why was he making enemies in the people he loved? "This is not fair."

"We broke rule #12." He smiled sadly, trying to add some DiNozzo to the atmosphere.

"It's over, Tony." Ziva said after another silence. She had to finish it – she loved him too much to watch him throw his life away. And she did love him. At least she thought she was beginning to love him, and for Ziva, opening up was harder for her than it was for Tony.

She stood up and walked to the door, not daring to look Tony in the eye. As she opened the door she spun around and glared, a glare so deadly even Gibbs was a little intimidated. She wiped her eyes and headed out the office.

"What now?" Tony asked, staring at the table.

"Now we get back to work."

XXX

Ziva stepped out of the elevator to Abby's lab, feeling completely dead inside. Her heart was hollow and her body was numb.

Abby, McGee and James saw her coming and changed stance – clearly they had not stopped analysing the situation since Tony and Ziva left with Gibbs. Wondering what the hell was going on with them.

"Hey Ziva." Abby smiled, trying to avoid the subject though inside all she wanted to do was ask about the events of the last half an hour. "Where's Gibbs?"

"With Tony." She answered in a monotone "in the directors office."

McGee and James exchanged glances, James' strong jaw protruding, his brown hair in front of his eyes.

Abby nodded her head and walked to Ziva – it didn't take a rocket scientist to guess what had just happened. From what Abby could tell, it was over.

She opened her arms and for the first time Ziva fell into them, letting the Goth scientist envelope her in the hug.

"You want to talk about it?" She asked finally, pulling away from the hug and staring into Ziva's glassy, bloodshot eyes.

"What is there to talk about?" she asked "Two months and it is now over."

Abby didn't know what to say to that – trust Ziva to put on and 'I'm fine' mask and go on with life. She had no idea how to grieve. No idea how to handle things out in the open. Mossad had taught her to repress things and that's exactly what she did.

Before Abby could find the right words the elevator announced it's arrival and Gibbs and Tony stepped out together. Ziva manoeuvred herself away from the two, an incredibly awkward tension filling the lab. "What did you call us down here for?" Tony finally asked, not daring to look into the curious and confused eyes of his co-workers.

Abby double clicked on her computer and Mikael's ID came up. Ziva squinted and moved closer to the screen. Tony stiffened at the very sight of him.

"That's not his name." Ziva pointed out, turning to Abby and avoiding eye contact with Gibbs.

"You think, David?" Gibbs said.

"Yes, I do, _Jethro_." She spat, venom creeping into her tone.

Abby stepped forward, blocking each from the other's vision and continued.

"He's been using this identity for over 18 hours and still hasn't left the country. Any other escaped convict would have fled by now… I mean; I would have… Not saying I will… Or that I'm an escaped convict under a fake identity…" She rambled.

Gibbs moved into Ziva's personal space, the teeniest bit intimidated by the tension. It brought back memories of his ex wives.

"Why is he staying?" he whispered, sending a surge of anger through Ziva's system.

She looked up, staring daggers into his eyes. "What makes you think that I would know?"

Tony overheard the two and moved closer, James, McGee and Abby all edging in with him.

"What is he waiting for?" he repeated, an edge to his voice this time.

"He's trying to find his daughter." He piped up, everyone turning to face him.

Ziva's eyes narrowed and she turned to Tony, her heart beating a mile a minute; she relaxed her face and nodded her head; allowing him to continue.

"He won't leave until he knows where she is." He explained.

"Well who knows where she is?" McGee piped up, the first thing he'd said in a while.

"Me." Ziva said.

Four pairs of eyes turned to stare at Ziva's though her eyes were locked on the one person who wasn't looking back, his eyes fixed on a position on the floor, empty and cold.

Then it hit Tony, Mikael would be back and just like last time, there was nothing stopping her from going to confront him again.

XXX

**Well I hope you all enjoyed that one! Wasn't recoil AWESOME!? How hot did Ziva look? Yay for Tiva… it was great – very unexpected and ALSO Tony finally knew what it was like to be left behind, to be the one trying to talk… TALK ABOUT KARMA!! **

**Anyway, feel free to comment just to discuss Recoil :P:P (or if you liked the chapter, doesn't fuss me:)**

**Xox Mel**

**Also, I realise that Gibbs wouldn't usually be this harsh but I was getting sick of my stories always ending with: 'It's okay… you're my children.'**

**:P:P**

**XXX**


	13. The pain of unspilled tears

Ready… shortest intro EVER:

**Ready… shortest intro EVER: **

**Here you go. Thankyou for the comments :P**

**Chapter 13: the pain of unspilled tears. **

Ziva sat at her desk, her head resting on her folded arms in front of her. Gibbs –clearly- didn't trust DiNozzo to keep an eye on her and had instead ordered James to not let her out of his sight. After the last time James had also been warned that she was likely to attack him or take advantage of him so he was –more or less- too scared to take his eyes off her for a second – which suited him just fine – she was easy on the eye.

Ziva, on the other hand, was not happy at all with this new arrangement. Two months. It had only been two months and _again_ she was forced to be babysat by James. Tony was right – he _was_ a probie. She laughed quietly to herself; Tony really _had_ rubbed off on her.

Tony walked into the bullpen at that moment, the first time all night – Gibbs had really gone to a huge effort to make sure the two weren't together for very long. Ziva smiled lightly at him and he kept walking, refusing to acknowledge her. As far as he was concerned she was the one who ended a good thing. He was willing to quit NCIS for her – to call Gibbs' bluff. Why did she have to end it? It didn't _have_ to end. He picked up a sheet of paper and turned to walk out. It would be asking too much of himself to do anything more.

"Tony." Ziva called as he marched by.

Tony kept walking past her and she darted around her desk, running after him, completely ignoring the calls from Agent Andrews as she did so.

Tony stepped into the elevator, hitting the 'close door' button multiple times before Ziva joined him.

The two stood in silence as the elevator doors closed, locking out a confused and worried James, his blue eyes glassy with worry.

"This isn't my fault." She said, leaning forward to hit the emergency stop button. Tony wasn't expecting any less – infact it seemed like no one could go one elevator ride these days without it stopping. It _was_ going to break one day.

Tony turned to Ziva and sighed. "Whose fault is it, then, Ziva?" he questioned, staring daggers into her eyes but at the same time resisting the urge to hold her and tell her how much he loved her. His heart was broken but somehow it was still beating for her. "We can blame Gibbs all we want but it was you who ended it."

"I ended it because I did not want you loosing your job!" Ziva stepped back, her anger growing. She couldn't believe he was blaming her – that was not fair.

"That was my call to make, Ziva. Not yours."

"Well last time I checked I should of got a say in this 'call'" she spat back, last time she checked she had been his girlfriend when the decision was made.

"Well maybe this was all for the best." He began, his voice full of spite. "Ever since last week this relationship has been nothing but hard. Do you even know how to make anything easy, Ziva? Is it even possible for you to love?"

Her eyes narrowed, that was a low blow. There was a silence and Tony immediately regretted saying anything. "Maybe you're right, DiNozzo. Maybe I know nothing about love. Maybe it _was _fake. Everything I ever said or did was pretend."

"_Do_ you know anything about love?" he questioned "It seems I'm the only one who can feel anything toward you. Two months, Ziva. Two months and you feel nothing for me – I understand that it was only two months but—"

"It wasn't just two months!" she interrupted, a fire burning in her heart. "I have felt _everything_ for you since before _Jeanne_! You are the one that knows nothing of love! Nothing of real pain – you have experienced nothing!"

"Nothing?" Tony yelled, pointing to his heart. "How could you think that I feel nothing? I was willing to give up NCIS for you – something I was never willing to do for Jeanne!"

"You never said you felt anything! Two months and nothing from you; I have felt everything for you and did I ever get anything back?"

"Do you want me to say it now? Do you want me to make it harder on both of us right now?" Tony asked, stepping back to measure Ziva's expression.

There was a silence as the two calmed down. Ziva shrugged and looked toward the ground.

"It could not be any harder." She whispered.

"Alright" he began, taking a deep breath and fighting the urge to run, "I love you Ziva David. I am in love with you. I have to wake up every morning for the rest of my life wishing you were there with me, that you felt the same way. And now I have to deal with the fact that we are too late – there is too much bad timing with us… Like everything is against us – our jobs, our lives –I'm not Jewish, remember… not that we have to worry about that now. But even through that I still love you."

He was so out of character, usually he would never say anything that was really on his heart but anger brought his true emotions out and once a silence fell over them he realised what he had just admitted to.

Ziva absorbed what had just been said. Every movement indicated the truth – he was not lying to her – he really did love her but at the same time everything else he had said was also true – they were too far gone.

Ziva stared to the ground and stepped toward Tony, falling into his arms. Her head was buried in his chest and his arms encased her.

"I love you." She whispered, just as out of character as him. If this was the only moment they would get, she had passed up far too many chances to say nothing now – even if she regretted it in the future – right now it felt too right.

Tony stroked her hair, his heart beating fast against her body. She loved him too but it was too late – only by hours but still too late to make even a slight difference.

XXX

Jenny manoeuvred in her chair; signing paperwork could get so draining. It was when she was stuck doing nothing that she most wished she was back out in the field with Gibbs – they made such a good partnership, much like Tony and Ziva. She heard a knock at her door and immediately her heart sunk – if it was a knock, chances are it wouldn't be the one person she wanted to see.

"Come in!" she called, not bothering to stand up and get the door herself.

The door clicked and Gibbs entered, looking more drained and more 'Gibbs-like' than usual. Jenny immediately got up – for Jethro to be polite it meant something serious was up. She knew that face too – it was a face she hated – a face of genuine not knowing what to do. The face was not visible to the naked eye but as Jenny had stated in the past, she learned how to read 'Gibbs' a long time ago.

"What's wrong, Jethro?" she asked, walking closer to him. Their closeness was not awkward. The two had started things up again not long ago and though some people had their theories, no one knew for certain and –like Tony and Ziva- Gibbs and Jenny were too intimidating to approach and ask.

"DiNozzo and David." He answered, narrowing his eyes.

Jenny sighed, relieved – she thought he was going to break it off with her or his team was in serious trouble. "Jethro – you should know better then to let that worry you. You're not going soft on me are you?" she smiled.

Gibbs didn't glance up – his hard features remained in a tight knot and she reconsidered the severity of the situation. "What happened?" she asked, leaning forward.

He sat up, wondering why he was even asking Jen's opinion – he never let anyone know what was going on – especially with his own team. Gibbs was never one to admit stuffing up however on this occasion he feared he had split his team in half, how could they ever work the same again? Aside from him not trusting two of his best agents, Ziva hated him now.

"I found out about them last night and told them to end it. Or they'd be fired."

Jen stiffened – this caught her off guard. "Why? We did had a relationship"

"Exactly, and how did that end, Jenny?"

The director stiffened and her eyes narrowed slightly "Don't throw that back in my face, Jethro." She warned,

Gibbs looked up into Jen's eyes "I lost you, Jenny and I do not want the same thing to happen to my agents."

"Jethro – they are not us – granted they are scarily similar but you are intercepting any chance they had by stopping it now. If you thought this was a good idea you would not have come to me."

She was right – she was right most of the time. Gibbs rubbed his brow and hardened his eyes.

"Yeah. I really stuffed this one up." He thought quietly to himself. But it was too late – the damage had been done and he was not going to change his mind.

XXX

**Okay…. Okay – I know – out of character but eventually the romance gets the better of me and I need some sappy-ness… Think about it – Gibbs **_**could**_** go to the director and do that... Maybe… hehe! Oh well! I hope you enjoyed anyway – just pretend Gibbs is on one of his downs…. Which he **_**is**_**!**

**And now it's too late at night and I've just stopped making that thing called 'sense' so I'll let you guys be the judges! **

**Thanks for reading! **

**Xox Mel**

**Also, I decided that short intros are no fun! I'm just gonna keep blabbing on and if you don't want to read then you don't have to… I am SO going over all my old ones – none of them are going to make any sense now…**


	14. Too far gone

I am SO SO SOOOO sorry… seriously

**I am SO SO SOOOO sorry… seriously. You all have no idea… what can I give to you via fanfiction to make up for it? Thankyou all SO much for patience… and –hopefully- for still reading this after the massive wait… **

**I'm also sorry that this is so short… it was one of those occasions that was it could either be one massive chapter or two smaller ones – and I'm cheap – so I went with the latter option… however I'll make the next one longer. **

**Xox Mel**

**Chapter 14: too far gone**

Tony and Ziva stepped out of the elevator together and returned to the bullpen as Gibbs was coming down the stairs to join them. Behind his hard features, in the very pit of his stomach he felt a bit guilty pulling them apart. He quickly shook off this new thought and powered forward to join his team.

"What have we got?" he asked, pacing to his desk.

A few panicked glances were exchanged across the bullpen.

"Ah. Well no leads so far. We've talked to personal at Gitmo and they've given us… well they've given us nothing." McGee finally spoke up.

"Well not many prison wardens are willing to admit they screwed up." Tony butted in.

Gibbs stood staring at his team. "Are you telling me that all of you have nothing?"

Just as McGee was about to confirm that fact Gibbs' phone rang.

"Yeah, Abby?" he answered and the team sighed in relief – that saved them having to explain that they had no leads. "I'll be right down."

Gibbs hung up the phone and begun walking toward the elevator, McGee, James, Tony and Ziva began to stand up to follow him when he spun around, catching them all off guard.

"Sit." He commanded, like to a pack of dogs. He smiled internally when they responded immediately, resuming their positions at their computers.

XXX

Gibbs stepped out of the elevator and headed into Abby's lab. He walked straight through the lab to her stereo and turned it down, shaking his head.

"Abs?" he called out, not in the mood for hide and seek. He walked further into her lab, finding no one he turned to leave, caught slightly off-guard as Abby swung around in a large chair, revealing her unhappy face.

"Gibbs." she noted, nodding her head.

"What have you got for me, Abby?" he asked, not in the mood for games.

"Me first." She butted in, standing up.

There was a silence and Gibbs narrowed his eyes slightly, already knowing what this would be about.

Abby realised he wasn't going to respond so she continued, stepping forward until she was only a few feet from him. "What happened?" she asked, clearly –like Gibbs- not in the mood for games either.

Gibbs squinted for a second, not about to answer just like that. He was a man of few words when it concerned anything outside a case.

"Gibbs." She added sternly, her eyes revealing that she was not willing to go down without a fight. She stepped closer until her face was level with his, the two locked in a staring contest. Gibbs had trained her well and when she wanted to be, Abby was very intimidating.

"Ask DiNozzo." He said simply, walking away.

"No Gibbs!" she yelled to his back. "You can't do this to them! Just because what happened with you never worked out it doesn't mean you can get in the way of other people's happiness!"

Gibbs stopped and turned around, internally ashamed though it was invisible through his hard mask.

"My rules are not made to be broken, Abby." He said in a low voice.

"What? So you can break everyone else's rules but yours have to be abided by?" she asked, voice strained, holding back emotion – it was not often that she yelled at her boss, infact she'd only told him off a few times since they met. But this time he had to be told – if she was a chance of saving whatever was there between Tony and Ziva then she was going to try – she owed her family that much.

"The rules are made to make good agents. Relationships are not a good idea for NCIS agents." Gibbs said calmly, moving closer to Abby until they were only a few feet a part.

"Oh because an agent who broke rule number twelve could never become – oh, I don't know – the director of NCIS?"

He scowled, his eyes boring into Abby's though her fierce expression was untouched. "How could you not have seen this coming, Gibbs? Me and McGee used to make bets on it – like that time they went under cover together."

Gibbs looked down to his feet, his eyes narrowed briefly but enough for her to notice, her face dropping in realisation.

"You did know." She said, moving closer to him until their faces were mere inches from each other, Gibbs said nothing, not confirming nor denying, "Stop trying to create super-agents, Gibbs. Your team is the best one out there by a long shot and you know that."

Gibbs stared into Abby's eyes, internally torn. He had to keep to his rules yet both Jenny and Abby had points but it was too late – how could he admit his mistake now?

"What have you got for me, Abby?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

Abby broke away from the stare and turned to her computer, turning on the screen to reveal an address. "I found him," she said, grabbing a piece of paper and handing it to her fearless leader.

Gibbs' stare remained fixated on Abby as he turned away, finally dragging his eyes off her.

"Gibbs." She called quietly to his back.

He stopped and turned slowly, walking back to her to kiss her lightly on the cheek.

"I know." He whispered, his lips at her ear. "I know." He repeated as stepped into the elevator, the silver doors sealing him in. The elevator jolted lightly as he hit the emergency stop button, sliding down the side of the wall.

Had he made a huge mistake? Was it too late to fix it? Would Tony and Ziva still want each other?

Was everything just too far gone?

XXX

**Hello… **

**Okay – I am so SO so so soooooooo sorry for taking so damn long, it is inexcusable and I have an excuse but I won't bore you all with that (mainly performances, exams and good, old fashioned writers block) **

**Anyway I am SO sorry – again – and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. **

**I have actually finished it now so I will be updating daily for the final chapters. Don't sweat – all will be well. **

**I am so sorry – how can I make it up to you all?**

**Forever in your debt, **

**Xox Mel**

**P.s OH MY GOD! Who watched the final episode (well that was a stupid thing to ask) BUT OH MY GOD is all I can say… It was amazing – sad, tragic, but still one of the most brilliant things I have EVER seen… Dear god I hate Vance – the man should die… please tell me what all of you guys think! I am interested to get a general overview – I've decided the September is just too darn far away! **

**I can't wait to see next season! (They are already filming… WITH ALL OF THEM (besides – of course – the obvious))**


	15. Hanging by a moment

Chapter 15: Hanging by a moment

**Hey all! Did I promise quick update or did I promise quick update? Thankyou all SO much for reading and reviewing after such a MASSIVE wait – though I've already finished it I'm having trouble with an end so any suggestions would be great but if you feel like keeping them to yourselves for your own fics that's fine too! **

**Thankyou and without further a due I give you:**

**Chapter 15: Hanging by a moment**

"Grab your gear." Said Gibbs as he walked into the bullpen, surprising his agents, the poked their heads up, confusion on their faces.

"Ah boss?" Tony said, looking for clarification of what was going on.

"Abby got a location. DiNozzo, David…" Gibbs said, hesitating for a second wondering whether or not to put the two of them together "go ahead with agent Andrews with the van; me and McGee will follow."

"On it." Tony said, strapping his gun on and shooting a glance to Ziva, a solemn look on her face – it was always hard for her to see Mikael, he reminded her of heartbreak. But not this time – this time she would not let him affect her, she felt nothing for him now and she was going to show him that.

XXX

Tony, Ziva, Gibbs, McGee and James got out of their cars and stood around the dock warehouse, plugging in earwigs and strapping on bulletproof vests.

"DiNozzo, take the left side; David, Andrews, you two take the right side; me and McGee will go through the warehouse" Gibbs said, waving his finger for McGee to follow. The team broke away, guns at the ready as they flooded the dock.

Tony ran around the left side of the dock, and caught sight of Mikael standing at the water's edge, disposing of a large garbage bag, most likely containing a body.

"Put your hands behind your head!" Tony called, his gun at the ready, standing thirty feet from Dundovich.

Mikael obliged, slowing walking toward Tony.

"Stand still!" Came a voice behind him. Tony turned his head to find Ziva standing by herself, her gun trained on Mikael.

Tony smiled lightly upon seeing Ziva and unattached his handcuffs from his belt, sliding them along the floor until they hit Mikael on the foot, he bent down and connected them to his hands.

"Where's Agent Andrews?" Tony asked, putting his gun back to his belt.

"Right here." Came a voice from behind Ziva. They both turned to see the tall, attractive agent, his blond hair in messy disarray. "I thought I saw something behind some dumpsters while running around – it was just garbage" he explained, moving closer to Tony and Ziva.

"Well, good to see you got him." He added after a silence, putting his gun to his belt.

As he did so his jacket pulled up to reveal a black-and-white symbol, the top half of the outer circle consisting of two elongated Palestinian flags. The flags framed crossed swords and an image of the Koran and a script that read: "be prepared." The script on the dark wide band at bottom said "the Islamic Resistance Movement."

Ziva's eyes widened slightly in shock and she glanced at Mikael then back to James, pulling her gun on him, her back to Mikael.

Tony followed suit in pulling out his gun to train it on James. Though he had no idea what James had done wrong it was a reflex, if Ziva thought something was hinky, something was hinky.

"He's Hamas." She explained, keeping her eyes trained on James. "He's with Dundovich."

Before anything else could be said, Mikael lurched forward, trapping Ziva with his handcuffs. "That's right." He whispered. Tony turned, wide eyed, his gun trained on Mikael, waiting for him to move out from behind Ziva so he could take a shot.

Mikael leaned forward and kissed Ziva on the cheek, trailing his poison lips from her cheekbone to the hollow bellow her ear. "Remember, Ziva?" he whispered, his voice as venomous as a snake "I always win."

He moved out from behind Ziva and Tony pulled the trigger on his Sig, it made an empty noise and he turned to James, he was smiling wickedly.

"I told you not to go into the elevator." He smiled, pulling his Sig out.

Tony glanced quickly to Ziva and back to James, jumping forward to tackle him to the ground, knocking his weapon into the water. James fought back, kicking Tony off him. He fell to the ground and jumped up, moving forward to swing another punch at James, this time getting him right in the mouth.

XXX

Gibbs and McGee checked all the rooms off the inside of the warehouse and found no trace of Mikael.

"What now, Boss?" McGee asked, lowering his weapon to his side.

Before Gibbs could answer, his cell phone went off.

"Yeah, Abs?" he answered.

"Gibbs – oh thank god you're okay. You know that search you wanted me to do on Agent Andrews the other day? Well I know it was ages ago but you wanted me to run him against everything and so I did but that takes A LOT of time, Gibbs – you know that. And so just as I was about to give up—"

"What did you get, Abs?" he interrupted, realising this could keep going if he didn't step in.

"James is Hamas, Gibbs. He's wanted in three different countries."

"For what?"

"Coercion … and murder"

Before she could say anything else the line went dead, Gibbs pulled his gun back out and ran around to the other side of the dock where Tony, Ziva and Andrews would be. McGee didn't ask questions, he simply followed suit.

The two turned around the corner and found Tony and Andrews in a fistfight, James kicked Tony off him and the two stood up, Tony lurching forward to punch him in the mouth.

James stopped, staring at Tony. He moved his hand to his mouth, dabbing at it with his hand. He pulled it back to see blood on the ends of his fingers, he moved to Ziva and grabbed the Sig concealed at her waist, holding it above her head he swiftly slammed it down, knocking her unconscious in Mikael's arms.

James and Mikael smiled wickedly at each other as they stared at the unconscious agent.

"Jew." James spat, taking Ziva in his arms. "Give her to me."

"What are you doing?" Tony asked, standing still as the gun was aimed at him, any wrong move could kill the two of them right there.

James turned to him, smiling wickedly as he released his hold on Ziva, letting her drop into the black water.

"Ziva!" Tony called, moving toward the water. He stopped and turned to James, Ziva's Sig now aimed at his head.

Before anyone could move two shots rung out through the dock, followed by a dead silence and a body falling to the ground.

XXX

**I know it's a kind of predictable thing to say but:**

**MWAHAHA!**

Hope you enjoyed that small cliff hanger there :P

**Xox Mel**


	16. All at once

Chapter 16: A still, stunned dream

**Chapter 16: All at once**

**This chapter is inspired by the Fray: All at once. If you've never heard it – listen to it now! : P: P You can listen to it whilst reading this… :P:P enjoy!**

**Also, last chapter I said James had blonde hair – that is a contradiction of his appearance in other chapters and I'm sorry – It's brown. **

**XXX**

"_Ziva!" Tony called, moving toward the water. He stopped and turned to James, Ziva's Sig now aimed at his head. _

_Before anyone could move two shots rung out through the dock, followed by a dead silence and a body falling to the ground._

James stood, his gun stretched outward, Tony stood staring at him, confusion on his face. Slowly blood dripped from James' mouth and he fell to the ground, blood pooling around his head.

Tony glanced across to see McGee and Gibbs lowering their weapons, McGee already running toward Mikael.

"Ziva." Tony whispered to himself, dropping his gun and diving into the bay. He hit the ice cold, black water and opened his eyes, surging toward a dark figure a meter below the surface. Finally he reached it and wrapped his arm around her, jetting to the surface.

"Come on, Ziva." He said to her, swimming one handed to the dock.

After what seemed like hours of swimming he reached the bank and threw her onto the wooden pier, jumping out of the freezing water. Before Gibbs or McGee could get to her Tony had begun CPR.

"Call an ambulance, McGee." Gibbs ordered, taking Mikael by the arm and handing him to McGee to put him in the car - his eyes not breaking away as Tony desperately tried to bring the unconscious agent back to life. Mikael simply laughed to himself smugly.

"Good to see you found someone, Ziva. Shalom." He said in his sinister tone, as he obliged, walking with McGee.

At this Gibbs scowled, the small seed of planting itself into his stomach again.

"Come on, Ziva!" Tony yelled, pressing down on her stomach. "Don't do this to me!"

Finally Ziva coughed, water pouring out of her mouth. She sat up; spluttering and Tony pushed her back down, relief washing over his face.

"Oh thankyou, God." He mumbled to himself quietly.

Ziva coughed again, sitting up slightly, her face mere centimetres from Tony's, so close she could feel his cool breath hit her wet skin, sending a shiver down her spine.

"Are you okay?" he asked, removing his wet jacket and offering it to her, pulling it back upon realising her wearing that would just make her colder.

She nodded and coughed again, moving her face forward, closing the gap between them.

"Ahem" Gibbs interrupted, clearing his throat, causing Tony and Ziva to pull away from each other.

"The ambulance is on its way, boss," said McGee, walking back to join the group.

"Really Gibbs, I'm fine. I don't need an ambulance." She said, attempting again to stand up only to be held down by Tony – suddenly very aware of his hands against her body.

"Not open to negotiation, David." He said, staring at the two. "Call we when you get cleared." He added, walking away.

"Oh and DiNozzo?" he called, not bothering to turn around.

"Yeah, Boss?"

"I think it's time you got a new watch."

XXX

Tony and Ziva stepped out of the elevator together; their hair was dry but their clothes still damp. Ziva had a large bandage on the top of her forehead where James had struck her but other then that they seemed all right – just cold.

"AHA!" he laughed to himself, running to his desk where he pulled out a spare shirt and pants, he turned and saw Ziva standing by her desk, pulling out only a pair of sweat pants.

He smiled to himself and threw his shirt at her. She looked up at him, a confused look on her face as she pulled the shirt to her nose, instinctively smelling the armpit.

"It's clean," he said, narrowing his eyes slightly at her. He turned to walk through the bullpen, heading toward the toilets to get changed "coming David?"

Ziva glanced up and followed, Tony turning to glance at her before entering the Men's room. Upon glance at her eyes he made up his mind – he had to talk to her; there was something that he wasn't ready to finish.

XXX

Tony waited outside the women's toilets for Ziva, leaning against the wall. After what seemed like hours she finally emerged wearing only sweat pants and his shirt, lingering loosely on her body. Even near death experiences made her look sexy.

She stopped abruptly, catching his figure in the corner of her eye.

He pulled him self away from the wall and stood straight, raising his hand, indicating Ziva to follow.

The two stepped silently into the elevator, watching the distance between them, an awkward tension filling the elevator. As it began to descend, Tony leaned forward and hit the emergency switch, turning to Ziva. She sighed to herself, pained. Why did he have to do this? It was just making it too hard. Why couldn't he at least try moving on?

"Is this what you really want?" He asked, turning to face her, his eyes staring right into hers.

"What?" Ziva asked, pain and annoyance in her voice. She had had enough – they needed to stop dwelling on the past.

"Us… like this…" he clarified, gesturing the distance between them

Ziva exhaled and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. "We don't have a choice here, Tony. Why can't you understand that?"

Tony was taken aback a little by this but continued anyway. "We do have a choice."

"What are you talking about? If we want to stay here, we have no choice. You know that – stop trying to find ways out of it, Gibbs is not going to back down."

"Do you want it like this?" he continued through her pessimism.

She thought for a second, staring at the ground then raising her gaze to meet Tony's green eyes. "No"

"That is all I need." He said; flicking off the emergency switch and reassigning the elevator back to where it was.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he brushed past her, exiting the elevator.

He didn't respond, just continued walking to his desk. He opened his drawer and pulled out his Sig and his badge, moving to dump them on Gibbs' desk.

The loud sound hitting the desk made Gibbs look up, his eyes narrowed and he got up from his desk.

"With me." He said in a quiet, deadly voice, as he brushed past.

Tony followed him through the bullpen to behind the stairs leading to MTAC, to Gibbs' secondary office.

"Next time you hand me your badge, you better think about it," he said in a low voice.

"I've thought about it boss, infact – under the circumstances – there was not much else thought about. NCIS or her. I choose her." Tony retorted, his low voice vicious.

Gibbs looked into the eyes of his senior field agent, behind the anger they were pleading with him. Before he could think about it too much he grabbed Tony's hand, placing his badge back into it.

Tony's eyes widened slightly, a confused look on his face.

"What about me and Ziva?" he asked

Gibbs moved edged closer. "About you two being just partners?" he asked

Tony stood confused and angry; he didn't understand what was going on. Gibbs widened his eyes slightly and it clicked.

"Oh." Tony realised what he was doing "Nothing more boss."

Gibbs smiled lightly and turned to walk up the stairs, Tony too stunned to move.

"Hey, DiNozzo." Gibbs called, turning around mid stride.

"Boss?"

"Don't let me catch you." He said, his lips turning up slightly at the corners though behind the small smile there was a serious edge.

Tony didn't respond, he just stood still, stunned – wondering if he just dreamt the whole thing.

XXX

**Can I just say I am VERY proud of myself; this is my first fanfiction where I haven't done an ambulance run with Ziva in a coma. Don't get me wrong – they are great – but I get sick of writing them, you can only pad up so much 'Ziva nearly dying' stuff. So to anyone who's writing a hospital one at the moment – I sympathise. (I promise I'm not having a stab at them, I like reading them)**

**Hope you enjoyed**

**Xox Mel**


	17. Fight or flight?

Chapter 17: All at once

**Hehe sorry if I gave the impression that chapter 16 was the last chapter… cause it wasn't.. and now this whole thing seems bittersweet and a little anticlimactic… my bad.**

**Well here it is. This is it, people. The final chapter… Chapter 17… this is where we say goodbye. (I think I might cry…) But it has been awesome. Thankyou all so much for the constant support. I want to thank the following people (this is going to take a while, feel free to just look for your name and continue reading):**

**Kandon Kuuson, LadyTish, dunozzo, angel-death-dealer, boheman buddy, DoodleTaffy, NickTonyK, charliebrown122, MistletoeandGum, stellinstellina, sweetdreameuz, MinnyMisty, xoxEllexox, Ziva4Tony, au-joker, Frogster, quidditchgirlie, Princess456, OnlyFoolsReadMyStories, murmure etoile, Safira Suoh, Tsari, 24-Fan-4-Ever, Forever.Is.Yours, shirik, Jessabelle87, Sweetcheeksncis, Uconn Fan, its.intoxicating., The-NightWalking-DayDreamer, vamp926, dark-angels-who-eat-cookies, pipersam, Zentris, Megean, snapescelticgirl, Darkness Be Mine, angelnoetzel, RachelTheSilentKunoichi, papillongirl, SunderlandHeir and Mere-Bear-Maryy, **

**As well as anonymous reviewers: **

**Tiva, Apple-shiz, supernaturalSKANK, Kass, Kim, Tito. **

**These people get the EPIC thankyous. (These 5 have commented EVERY SINGLE chapter and they are just beyond the most epic people in the world!)**

**To: **

**Cable Addict (you could never offend me), jirrG, CarlieD, Dracoisalooker76 and ME wofford. Thankyou so SO much, I am forever in your debts. If there is anything I can do via the wild world or web to make it up to any of you please don't hesitate to force me to. (If you want me to anonymously comment your FF chapters 100 times, I will.)**

**Now I give you the final curtain:**

**Chapter** **17: Fight or flight?**

Tony walked back into the bullpen still stunned from Gibbs' words. He couldn't believe it. He could actually feel his chest again. He and Ziva could be together, no having to choose between the two things he loved. He got to the bullpen and sat at his desk, his eyes searching for Ziva. He glanced down to see a small note on his desk and looked over to McGee who was typing away, trying to ignore the drama of the Tony/Ziva/Gibbs saga. He would know soon enough so he knew not to press the matter.

"Probie?" Tony began, lifting up the letter "who left this here?"

"Maybe read it." He simply shrugged in a smart tone.

Tony scowled at him and stood up, pacing over to Ziva's desk to grab his letter opener that she often stole from him. He remembered her saying she always admired it. He shook off that small daydream and ripped into the letter.

'_Tony._' It began

' _I do not know what you are trying to do however I will not let you loose your job like this. So I will be the one to say it. It is over; you and I should not be together. Like you said, the past few weeks have just been too difficult and it is dangerous, as federal agents we have to be always on guard. _

_I am sorry but it is better than loosing your job. If I am already too late it makes no difference, I will stand by my decision and maybe you will get your job back._

_- Ziva'_

Tony scrunched up her letter and threw it into the bin, turning to McGee.

"Where's Ziva?" he asked urgently.

"She left. Said her head was sore." McGee answered, a confused look on his face "You okay?"

Tony didn't respond, he sprinted to the elevator and jumped in, Ziva had to know what had just happened before she made her final decision. Her words spun through his mind, ripping through his stomach each time. What did she mean that it was probably not a good idea anyway?

He shook off any thought about the letter and headed forward, hoping she was willing to give the relationship another chance.

XXX

Ziva sat on her couch; her headache getting worse and worse as the medication the emergency room gave her began to wear off.

She sat still; staring at the necklace Tony had gotten her for her birthday six months ago. It was a gold locket with a picture of him inside of it, the picture Abby had taken one day with her new phone. She smiled gently and a tear ran down her face, she had made a huge mistake and she knew it. The whole thing was doomed from the start; from the second they met it had been bad timing – he had liked her when she was not interested in him then the second she began to have feelings for him he got a girlfriend. It was just doomed.

However there was no way she could give up on what she and Tony had. Maybe he was right, maybe it was his call to make – if he didn't want to be in the team he didn't have to.

A loud knock at the door pulled her out of her thought spiral and she jumped up quickly, momentarily distracted by who it could be, she opened the door to find Tony there, his expression unreadable.

She didn't know what to say to him, her heart lurched forward, hitting against her rib cage.

She simply opened the door wider and let him in.

"I'm sorry Tony." She said once she'd closed the door, not daring to look into his ashamed eyes.

"I'm still at NCIS." He said, her gaze going from ashamed to shocked then back to sad. If he was still at NCIS it meant that there was no chance for them and at this point she had no idea what she wanted more.

Before she could say anything else on the matter Tony moved closer to her, reaching out his hand to hold her face. Slowly he moved in kissing her gently, their lips moving slowly with one another, his hands moving from her jaw to support the back of her head, her blow-waved, silky hair scrunching up.

Ziva broke away from the kiss, breathing deeply.

"What are you doing, Tony?" she asked, moving away – her pulse thudding against her neck, "You are just making it harder on both of us."

"I'm still at NCIS. But I am still with you."

Ziva's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"I handed my badge in – and well the short version is that Gibbs is going to pretend he has no idea about us. We just keep doing what we were doing but without letting him catch us this time." He said, smiling lightly.

Ziva couldn't respond to that – what would she say? All the things that ran through her mind were too poetically mushy to say aloud.

So she didn't respond, she just leaned in and crushed their lips together, for the first time in her life actually letting her guards down fully, letting relief wash over her and succumbing to happiness.

Tony felt Ziva smile under his lips and he pulled away, staring into her eyes, their faces millimetres apart.

"You know what, Ziva?" He whispered, smiling lightly, his cool breath touching her neck. "I think I could find it in myself to marry a Jewish person after all."

Ziva smiled, her face dropping slightly in shock. Before Tony could realise what he had just said she pulled him closer, their lips meeting gently as they relaxed, for once their relationship in the correct timing.

XXX

**I'm really sorry that it is so short – I mean, this is all it needed and I didn't want to pad it up too much because I wanted you guys to enjoy it.**

**Thankyou all so much, it has truly been a privilege writing for you. I hope you ALL enjoyed it! **

**Xox Mel, ncisgirl101**

**You will be hearing from me.**


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